The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Quran and the Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state".[21]

For many years the movement was financed by Saudi Arabia, with which it shared some enemies[who?] and some points[which?] of doctrine.[22][23]

As a Pan-Islamic, religious, and social movement, it preached Islam, taught the illiterate, and set up hospitals and business enterprises. The group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest, or one of its largest, organizations in Egypt despite a succession of government crackdowns in 1948,[24][25] 1954,[26] 1965, and 2013 after plots, or alleged plots, of assassination and overthrow were uncovered.[27][28][29]

The Arab Spring brought it legalization and substantial political power at first, but as of 2013 it has suffered severe reversals.[30] The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was legalized in 2011 and won several elections,[31] including the 2012 presidential election when its candidate Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first democratically elected president,[32] though one year later, following massive demonstrations and unrest, he was overthrown by the military and placed under house arrest.[33]

The Brotherhood itself claims to be a peaceful, democratic organization,[34][35] and that its leader "condemns violence and violent acts".[36]

The Brotherhood's English-language website describes its principles as including firstly the introduction of the Islamic Sharia as "the basis for controlling the affairs of state and society" and secondly, working to unify "Islamic countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberate them from foreign imperialism".[37]

According to a spokesman on its English-language website, the Muslim Brotherhood believes in reform, democracy, freedom of assembly, press, etc.

We believe that the political reform is the true and natural gateway for all other kinds of reform. We have announced our acceptance of democracy that acknowledges political pluralism, the peaceful rotation of power and the fact that the nation is the source of all powers. As we see it, political reform includes the termination of the state of emergency, restoring public freedoms, including the right to establish political parties, whatever their tendencies may be, and the freedom of the press, freedom of criticism and thought, freedom of peaceful demonstrations, freedom of assembly, etc. It also includes the dismantling of all exceptional courts and the annulment of all exceptional laws, establishing the independence of the judiciary, enabling the judiciary to fully and truly supervise general elections so as to ensure that they authentically express people's will, removing all obstacles that restrict the functioning of civil society organizations, etc.[38]

Its founder, Hassan Al-Banna, was influenced by Islamic modernist reformers Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (who attacked the taqlid of the official `ulama, and he insisted that only the Quran and the best-attested hadiths should be sources of the Sharia),[39] with the group structure and approach being influenced by Sufism.[40][41] Al-Banna avoided controversies over doctrine. It downplayed doctrinal differences between schools (although takfiring Bahais and Ahmadi Muslims) emphasizing the political importance of worldwide unity of the Muslim Nation (umma).[42]

As Islamic Modernist beliefs were co-opted by secularist rulers and official `ulama, the Brotherhood has become traditionalist and conservative, "being the only available outlet for those whose religious and cultural sensibilities had been outraged by the impact of Westernization".[43] Al-Banna believed the Quran and Sunnah constitute a perfect way of life and social and political organization that God has set out for man. Islamic governments must be based on this system and eventually unified in a Caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood's goal, as stated by its founder al-Banna was to drive out British colonial and other Western influences, reclaim Islam's manifest destiny—an empire, stretching from Spain to Indonesia.[44] The Brotherhood preaches that Islam will bring social justice, the eradication of poverty, corruption and sinful behavior, and political freedom (to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam). Blended with methods of modern social sciences, some key thinkers of Brotherhood have also contemplated the Islamic perspective on bureaucratic effectiveness, mapping out solutions to problems of formalism and irresponsiveness to public concerns in public administration, which pertains to the pro-democratic tenets of Muslim Brotherhood.[45] Such variations of thoughts have also purportedly negated the realities of contemporary Muslim countries as their authors have proclaimed.[46]

On the issue of women and gender the Muslim Brotherhood interprets Islam conservatively. Its founder called for "a campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior", "segregation of male and female students", a separate curriculum for girls, and "the prohibition of dancing and other such pastimes ... "[47]

The Brotherhood's "most frequently used slogan" (according to the BBC) is "Islam is the Solution" (الإسلام هو الحل).[52] According to academic Khalil Yusuf, its motto "was traditionally" "Believers are but Brothers."[53]

The Muslim Brotherhood position on political participation varied according to the "domestic situation" of each branch, rather than ideology. For many years its stance was "collaborationist" in Kuwait and Jordan; for "pacific opposition" in Egypt; "armed opposition" in Libya and Syria.[54] A 1982 document, later known as The Muslim Brotherhood Project outlined "a global vision of a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy [or 'political Islam']" for the Brotherhood was found in Switzerland and translated into English by Scott Burgess in 2005.[55] (A book on the document was published under the name La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (The conquest of the West: The Islamists' Secret Project) by Sylvain Besson.[55]

The Muslim Brotherhood is a movement, not a political party, but its members have created political parties in several countries, such as the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank and the now disbanded Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt. These parties are staffed by Brotherhood members but they are kept independent from the Muslim Brotherhood to some degree, unlike Hizb ut-Tahrir which is highly centralized.[56] The Brotherhood has been described as a "combination of neo-Sufic tariqa" (with al-Banna as the original murshid i.e., guide of the tariqa) "and a political party".[39] The Egyptian Brotherhood has a pyramidal structure with "families" (or usra, which consists of four to five people and is headed by a naqib, or "captain)[57][58] at the bottom, "clans" above them, "groups" above clans and "battalions" or "phalanxes" above groups.[39][59] Potential Brethren start out as Muhib or "lovers", and if approved move up to become a muayyad, or "supporter", then to muntasib or "affiliated", (who are nonvoting members). If a muntasib "satisfies his monitors", he is promoted to muntazim, or "organizer", before advancing to the final level -- ach 'amal, or "working brother".[57] With this slow careful advancement, the loyalty of potential members can be "closely probed" and obedience to orders assured.[57]

At the top of the hierarchy is the Guidance Office (Maktab al-Irshad), and immediately below it is the Shura Council. Orders are passed down through a chain of command:[60]

The Shura Council has the duties of planning, charting general policies and programs that achieve the goal of the Group.[60] It is composed of roughly 100 Muslim Brothers. Important decisions, such as whether to participate in elections, are debated and voted on within the Shura Council and then executed by the Guidance Office.[57] Its resolutions are binding to the Group and only the General Organizational Conference can modify or annul them and the Shura Office has also the right to modify or annul resolutions of the Executive Office. It follows the implementation of the Group's policies and programs. It directs the Executive Office and it forms dedicated branch committees to assist in that.[60]

Executive Office or Guidance Office (Maktab al-Irshad), which is composed of approximately 15 longtime Muslim Brothers and headed by the supreme guide or General Masul (murshid) Each member of the Guidance Office oversees a different portfolio, such as university recruitment, education, or politics. Guidance Office members are elected by the Shura Council.[57] Divisions of the Guidance/Executive Office include:

Executive leadership

Organizational office

Secretariat general

Educational office

Political office

Sisters office

The Muslim Brotherhood aimed to build a transnational organization. In the 1940s, the Egyptian Brotherhood organized a "section for Liaison with the Islamic World" endowed with nine committees.[61] Groups were founded in Lebanon (1936), in Syria (1937), and Transjordan (1946). It also recruited members among the foreign students who lived in Cairo where its headquarters became a center and a meeting place for representatives from the whole Muslim world.[62]

In each country with an MB there is a Branch committee with a Masul (leader) appointed by the General Executive leadership with essentially the same Branch-divisions as the Executive office. "Properly speaking" Brotherhood branches exist only in Arab countries of the Middle East where they are "in theory" subordinate to the Egyptian General Guide. Beyond that the Brotherhood sponsors national organizations in countries like Tunisia (Nahda), Morocco (Justice and Charity party), Algeria (Movement of Society for Peace).[63] Outside the Arab world it also has influence, with a former President of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani having adopted MB ideas during his studies at Al-Azhar University, and many similarities between mujahideen groups in Afghanistan and Arab MBs.[63]Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia in Malaysia is close to the Brotherhood.[63] According to scholar Olivier Roy, as of 1994 "an international agency" of the Brotherhood "assures the cooperation of the ensemble" of its national organizations. The agency's "composition is not well known, but the Egyptians maintain a dominant position".[63]

Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Ismailia in March 1928 along with six workers of the Suez Canal Company, as a Pan-Islamic, religious, political, and social movement.[64] The Suez Canal Company helped Banna build the mosque in Ismailia that would serve as the Brotherhood's headquarters, according to Richard Mitchell's The Society of Muslim Brothers.[65] According to al-Banna, contemporary Islam had lost its social dominance, because most Muslims had been corrupted by Western influences. Sharia law based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah were seen as laws passed down by God that should be applied to all parts of life, including the organization of the government and the handling of everyday problems.[66]

Al-Banna was populist in his message of protecting workers against the tyranny of foreign and monopolist companies. It founded social institutions such as hospitals, pharmacies, schools, etc. Al-Banna held highly conservative views on issues such as women's rights, opposing equal rights for women, but supporting the establishment of justice towards women.[47] The Brotherhood grew rapidly going from 800 members in 1936, to 200,000 by 1938 and over 2 million by 1948.[67]

As its influence grew, it opposed British rule in Egypt starting in 1936,[68] but it was banned after being accused of violent killings[69] including the assassination of a Prime Minister by a young Brotherhood member.[70][71][72]

In November 1948, following several bombings and assassination attempts by the Brotherhood, the Egyptian government arrested 32 leaders of the Brotherhood's "secret apparatus" and banned the Brotherhood.[73] At this time the Brotherhood was estimated to have 2000 branches and 500,000 members or sympathizers.[74] In succeeding months Egypt's prime minister was assassinated by a Brotherhood member, and following that Al-Banna himself was assassinated in what is thought to be a cycle of retaliation.

In 1952, members of the Muslim Brotherhood were accused of taking part in the Cairo Fire that destroyed some 750 buildings in downtown Cairo – mainly night clubs, theatres, hotels, and restaurants frequented by British and other foreigners.[75]

In 1952 Egypt's monarchy was overthrown by a group of nationalist military officers (Free Officers Movement) who had formed a cell within the Brotherhood during the first war against Israel in 1948.[76] However, after the revolution Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of the 'free officers' cell, after deposing the first President of Egypt, Muhammad Neguib, in a coup, quickly moved against the Brotherhood, blaming them for an attempt on his life. The Brotherhood was again banned and this time thousands of its members were imprisoned, many being tortured and held for years in prisons and concentration camps. In the 1950s and 1960s many Brotherhood members sought sanctuary in Saudi Arabia.[77] From the 1950s, Al-Banna's son-in-law Said Ramadan emerged as a major leader of the Brotherhood and the movement's unofficial "foreign minister". Ramadan built a major center for the Brotherhood centered on a mosque in Munich, which became "a refuge for the beleaguered group during its decades in the wilderness".[78]

In the 1970s after the death of Nasser and under the new President (Anwar Sadat), the Egyptian Brotherhood was invited back to Egypt and began a new phase of participation in Egyptian politics.[79] Imprisoned Brethren were released and the organization was tolerated to varying degrees with periodic arrests and crackdowns until the 2011 Revolution.[citation needed]

During the Mubarak era, observers both defended and criticized the Brotherhood. It was the largest opposition group in Egypt, calling for "Islamic reform", and a democratic system in Egypt. It had built a vast network of support through Islamic charities working among poor Egyptians.[80] According to ex-Knesset member and author Uri Avnery the Brotherhood was religious but pragmatic, "deeply embedded in Egyptian history, more Arab and more Egyptian than fundamentalist". It formed "an old established party which has earned much respect with its steadfastness in the face of recurrent persecution, torture, mass arrests and occasional executions. Its leaders are untainted by the prevalent corruption, and admired for their commitment to social work".[81] It also developed a significant movement online.[82][83]

In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Brotherhood became "in effect, the first opposition party of Egypt's modern era". Despite electoral irregularities, including the arrest of hundreds of Brotherhood members, and having to run its candidates as independents (the party being technically illegal), the Brotherhood won 88 seats (20% of the total) compared to 14 seats for the legal opposition.[84]

During its term in parliament the Brotherhood "posed a democratic political challenge to the regime, not a theological one", according to one The New York Times journalist,[84] while another report praised it for attempting to transform "the Egyptian parliament into a real legislative body", that represented citizens and kept the government "accountable".[84][85]

But fears remained about its commitment to democracy, equal rights, and freedom of expression and belief—or lack thereof.[86] In December 2006, a campus demonstration by Brotherhood students in uniforms, demonstrating martial arts drills, betrayed to some such as Jameel Theyabi "the group's intent to plan for the creation of militia structures, and a return by the group to the era of 'secret cells'".[87] Another report highlighted the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts in Parliament to combat what one member called the 'current US-led war against Islamic culture and identity', forcing the Minister of Culture (Farouk Hosny) to ban the publication of three novels on the ground they promoted blasphemy and unacceptable sexual practices.[88] In October 2007, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a detailed political platform. Among other things, it called for a board of Muslim clerics to oversee the government, and limiting the office of the presidency to Muslim men. In the "Issues and Problems" chapter of the platform, it declared that a woman was not suited to be president because the post's religious and military duties "conflict with her nature, social and other humanitarian roles". While proclaiming "equality between men and women in terms of their human dignity", the document warned against "burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family".[89]

Internally, some leaders in the Brotherhood disagreed on whether to adhere to Egypt's 32-year peace treaty with Israel. A deputy leader declared the Brotherhood would seek dissolution of the treaty,[90] while a Brotherhood spokesman stated the Brotherhood would respect the treaty as long as "Israel shows real progress on improving the lot of the Palestinians".[91]

The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for Egypt's 2012 presidential election was Mohamed Morsi, who defeated Ahmed Shafiq—the last prime minister under Mubarak's rule—with 51.73% of the vote.[95] Some high level supporters[96][97] and former Brotherhood officials[98] have reiterated hostility toward Zionism,[99] although during his campaign Morsi himself promised to stand for peaceful relations with Israel.[100]

Within a short period, serious public opposition developed to President Morsi. In late November 2012, he 'temporarily' granted himself the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts, on the grounds that he needed to "protect" the nation from the Mubarak-era power structure.[101][102] He also put a draft constitution to a referendum that opponents complained was "an Islamist coup".[103] These issues[104]—and concerns over the prosecutions of journalists, the unleashing of pro-Brotherhood gangs on nonviolent demonstrators, the continuation of military trials, new laws that permitted detention without judicial review for up to 30 days,[105] and the seeming impunity given to Islamist radical attacks on Christians and other minorities[106]—brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets starting in November 2012.[107][108]

By April 2013, Egypt had "become increasingly divided" between President Mohamed Morsi and "Islamist allies" and an opposition of "moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals". Opponents accused "Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsi's allies say the opposition is trying to destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership".[109][dead link] Adding to the unrest were severe fuel shortages and electricity outages, which raised suspicions among some Egyptians that the end of gas and electricity shortages since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi was evidence of a conspiracy to undermine him, although other Egyptians say it was evidence of Morsi's mismanagement of the economy.[110]

On 3 July 2013, Mohamed Morsi was removed from office and put into house arrest by the military,[111] that happened shortly after a popular uprising of tens of millions of Egyptians began.[112][113][114][115][116] demanding the resignation of Morsi. There were also limited counter-protests in support of Morsi;[117] those were originally intended to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Morsi's inauguration, and started days before the uprising. On 14 August, the interim government declared a month-long state of emergency, and soldiers assisted riot police in the violent action against protestors, largely in support of Morsi, during the August 2013 Rabaa massacre. Violence escalated rapidly following armed protesters attacking police, according to the National Council for Human Rights' report;[118] this led to the deaths of over 600 people and injury of some 4,000,[119][120] with the incident resulting in the most casualties in Egypt's modern history.[121] In retaliation, Brotherhood supporters looted and burned police stations and dozens of churches in response to the violence, though a Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson condemned the attacks on Christians and blamed military leaders for plotting the attacks.[122] The crackdown that followed has been called the worst for the Brotherhood's organization "in eight decades".[123] By 19 August, Al Jazeera reported that "most" of the Brotherhood's leaders were in custody.[124][125] On that day Supreme Leader Mohammed Badie was arrested,[126] crossing a "red line", as even Hosni Mubarak had never arrested him.[127] On 23 September, a court ordered the group outlawed and its assets seized.[128]Prime Minister, Hazem Al Beblawi on 21 December 2013, declared the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation after a car bomb ripped through a police building and killed at least 14 people in the city of Mansoura, which the government blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, despite no evidence and an unaffiliated Sinai-based terror group claiming responsibility for the attack.[129]

A group of pro-Brotherhood protesters holding the Rabia sign and making the associated gesture during a pro-Brotherhood protest held in October 2013.

On 24 March 2014, an Egyptian court sentenced 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death[130] following an attack on a police station, an act described by Amnesty International as "the largest single batch of simultaneous death sentences we've seen in recent years […] anywhere in the world".[131] By May 2014, approximately 16,000 people (and as high as more than 40,000 by what The Economist calls an "independent count"),[132] mostly Brotherhood members or supporters, have allegedly been arrested by police since the 2013 uprising.[133] On 2 February 2015, an Egyptian court sentenced another 183 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death.[134]

An editorial in The New York Times claimed that "leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which became the leading political movement in the wake of Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising, are languishing in prison, unfairly branded as terrorists. ... Egypt’s crushing authoritarianism could well persuade a significant number of its citizens that violence is the only tool they have for fighting back".[135]

Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to death on 16 May 2015, along with 120 others.[136]

Foreigners were threatened with violence by a Turkey-based free-to-airsatellite television channel owned by exiled Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members.[137] Violence was endorsed by a Turkey-based office of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.[citation needed]

The Muslim Brotherhood claimed that Muslims did not carry out the Botroseya Church bombing and claimed it was a false flag by the Egyptian government and Copts, in a statement released in Arabic on the FJP's website,[138] but their claim was challenged by 100 Women participant Nervana Mahmoud[139][140] and Hoover Institution and Hudson Institute fellow Samuel Tadros.[141] The Muslim Brotherhood released an Arabic-language statement claiming the attack was carried out by the Egyptian government security forces of President Sisi.[citation needed] The Anti-Coup Alliance said that "full responsibility for the crime" was on the "coup authority".[citation needed] The Muslim Brotherhood released an English-language commentary on the bombing and said it condemned the terrorist attack.[142]

Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood members are suspected to have helped a Muslim Brotherhood agent carry out the bombing according to the Egyptian government.[143][144][145] The Qatar-based supporter was named as Mohab Mostafa El-Sayed Qassem.[146][147][148] The terrorist was named as Mahmoud Shafiq Mohamed Mostaf.[149]

The Arabic-language website of the Muslim Brotherhood commemorated the anniversary of the death of their leader Hassan al-Banna and repeated his words calling for the teachings of Islam to spread all over the world and to raise the "flag of Jihad", taking their land, "regaining their glory", "including diaspora Muslims" and demanding an Islamic State and a Muslim government, a Muslim people, a Muslim house, and Muslim individuals.[150] The Brotherhood cited some of Hassan al-Banna's sayings calling for brotherhood between Muslims.[citation needed]

The death of Omar Abdel Rahman, a convicted terrorist, received condolences from the Muslim Brotherhood.[citation needed] Mekameleen TV, a Turkey-based free-to-air satellite television channel run by exiled Brotherhood supporters, mourned his death and claimed it was "martyrdom". Mekameleen supports the Brotherhood[citation needed] Condolences were sent upon Omar Abdel Rahman's death by the website of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt.[151]

How much of the blame for the fall from power in Egypt of the Brotherhood and its allied Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) can be placed on the Brotherhood, and how much of it can be placed on its enemies in the Egyptian bureaucracy, media and security establishment is disputed. The Mubarak government’s state media portrayed the Brotherhood as secretive and illegal,[152] and numerous TV channels such as OnTv spent much on air time vilifying the organization.[153] But the Brotherhood took a number of controversial steps and also acquiesced to or supported crackdowns by the military during Morsi’s presidency.[154] Before the revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters appeared at a protest at Al-Azhar University wearing military-style fatigues, after which the Mubarak government accused the organization of starting an underground militia.[155] When it came to power, the Muslim Brotherhood indeed tried to establish armed groups of supporters and it sought official permission for its members to be armed.[156]

Although Iran is a predominately Shi'ite Muslim country and the Muslim Brotherhood has never attempted to create a branch for Shi'ites,[63] Olga Davidson and Mohammad Mahallati claim the Brotherhood has had influence among Shia in Iran.[158]Navab Safavi, who founded Fada'iyan-e Islam, (also Fedayeen of Islam, or Fadayan-e Islam), an Iranian Islamic organization active in Iran in the 1940s and 1950s, was, according to Abbas Milani, "very much enamored of the Muslim Brotherhood".[159]

Iranian Call and Reform Organization, a Sunni Islamist group active in Iran, has been described as an organization "that belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood"[160] or "Iranian Muslim Brotherhood",[161] while it has officially stated that it is not affiliated with the latter.[162]

Erdoğan performing the Rabaa gesture (which is used by Muslim Brotherhood supporters)

The Turkish AKP, the ruling party of Turkey publicly supported the Muslim Brotherhood during and a few months after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.[163][164] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed in an interview that this was because "Turkey would stand by whoever was elected as a result of legitimate elections".[165] According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, each year after Morsi's overthrow has seen the AKP "significantly detach itself from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt".[166]

The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed in 1960 as the Iraqi branch of the Brotherhood,[167] but was banned from 1961 during the nationalist rule of Abd al-Karim Qasim. As government repression hardened under the Baath Party from February 1963, the group was forced to continue underground. After the fall of the Saddam Hussein government in 2003, the Islamic Party has reemerged as one of the main advocates of the country's Sunni community. The Islamic Party has been sharply critical of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, but still participates in the political process nevertheless.[168] Its leader is Iraqi Vice-President Tariq Al-Hashimi.

Anti-infidel jihad was encouraged by Imams of the Muslim Brotherhood simultaneously while the US Army was having dialogues with them in Mosul. They pose as modern while encouraging violence at the same time. The role of political representatives of Sunnis was seized on by the Muslim Brotherhood in Mosul since 2003.[citation needed]

The Muslim Brotherhood was an active participation in the "Faith Campaign".[169] An ideology akin to the Brotherhood's was propagated in the faith campaign.[citation needed]

Khaled al-Obaidi said that he received a death threat and was declared a non-Muslim by the Muslim Brotherhood.[170]

A pro-Turkish demonstration was held in London by Muslim Brotherhood sympathizing Iraqis.[citation needed]

Also, in the north of Iraq there are several Islamic movements inspired by or part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), a small political party holding 10 seats in the Kurdish parliament, was believed to be supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 90's.[171] The group leaders and members have been continuously arrested by Kurdish authorities.

'Abd al-Rahman al-Banna, the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, went to Mandatory Palestine and established the Muslim Brotherhood there in 1935. Al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini, eventually appointed by the British as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in hopes of accommodating him, was the leader of the group in Palestine.[172] Another important leader associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine was 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam, an inspiration to Islamists because he had been the first to lead an armed resistance in the name of Palestine against the British in 1935.[173] In 1945, the group established a branch in Jerusalem, and by 1947 twenty-five more branches had sprung up, in towns such as Jaffa, Lod, Haifa, Nablus, and Tulkarm, which total membership between 12,000 and 20,000.[citation needed]

Brotherhood members fought alongside the Arab armies during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, and, after Israel's creation, the ensuing Palestinian refugee crisis encouraged more Palestinian Muslims to join the group. After the war, in the West Bank, the group's activity was mainly social and religious, not political, so it had relatively good relations with Jordan during the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank. In contrast, the group frequently clashed with the Egyptian government that controlled the Gaza Strip until 1967.[174]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Brotherhood's goal was "the upbringing of an Islamic generation" through the restructuring of society and religious education, rather than opposition to Israel, and so it lost popularity to insurgent movements and the presence of Hizb ut-Tahrir.[175] Eventually, however, the Brotherhood was strengthened by several factors:

The creation of al-Mujamma' al-Islami, the Islamic Center in 1973 by Shaykh Ahmad Yasin had a centralizing effect that encapsulated all religious organizations.

The Muslim Brotherhood Society in Jordan and Palestine was created from a merger of the branches in the West Bank and Gaza and Jordan.

Palestinian disillusion with the Palestinian militant groups caused them to become more open to alternatives.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran offered inspiration to Palestinians. The Brotherhood was able to increase its efforts in Palestine and avoid being dismantled like militant groups because it did not focus on the occupation. While militant groups were being dismantled, the Brotherhood filled the void.[176]

Between 1967 and 1987, the year Hamas was founded, the number of mosques in Gaza tripled from 200 to 600, and the Muslim Brotherhood named the period between 1975 and 1987 a phase of "social institution building."[177] During that time, the Brotherhood established associations, used zakat (alms giving) for aid to poor Palestinians, promoted schools, provided students with loans, used waqf (religious endowments) to lease property and employ people, and established mosques. Likewise, antagonistic and sometimes violent opposition to Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization and other secular nationalist groups increased dramatically in the streets and on university campuses.[178]

In 1987, following the First Intifada, the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas[176][179] was established from Brotherhood-affiliated charities and social institutions that had gained a strong foothold among the local population. During the First Intifada (1987–93), Hamas militarized and transformed into one of the strongest Palestinian militant groups.

The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 was the first time since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, that a Muslim Brotherhood group ruled a significant geographic territory.[180] However, the 2013 overthrow of the Mohammad Morsi government in Egypt significantly weakened Hamas's position, leading to a blockade of Gaza and economic crisis.[181]

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan originates from the merging of two separate groups which represent the two components of the Jordanian public: the Transjordanian and the West Bank Palestinian.[182] On 9 November 1945 the Association of the Muslim Brotherhood (Jam‘iyat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin) was officially registered and Abu Qura became its first General Supervisor.[182] Abu Qura originally brought the Brotherhood to Jordan from Egypt after extensive study and spread of the teachings of Imam Hasan al-Banna.[182] While most political parties and movements were banned for a long time in Jordan such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Brotherhood was exempted and allowed to operate by the Jordanian monarchy. In 1948, Egypt, Syria, and Transjordan offered “volunteers” to help Palestine in its war against Israel. Due to the defeat and weakening of Palestine, the Transjordanian and Palestinian Brotherhood merged.[182] The newly merged Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan was primarily concerned with providing social services and charitable work as well as with politics and its role in the parliament. It was seen as compatible with the political system and supported democracy without the forced implementation of Sharia law which was part of its doctrine.[183] However, internal pressures from younger members of the Brotherhood who called for more militant actions as well as his failing health, Abu Qura resigned as the leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. On 26 December 1953, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Rahman Khalifa, was elected by the movement’s administrative committee as the new leader of the Transjordanian Brotherhood and he retained this position until 1994. Khalifa was different than his predecessor and older members of the organization because he was not educated in Cairo, he was educated in Syria and Palestine. He established close ties with Palestinian Islamists during his educational life which led him to be jailed for several months in Jordan for criticizing Arab armies in the war.[182] Khalifa also reorganized the Brotherhood and applied to the government to designate the Brotherhood as “a comprehensive and general Islamic Committee, instead of the previous basis of operation under the “Societies and Clubs Law”. This allowed the Brotherhood to spread throughout the country each with slight socioeconomic and political differences although the majority of the members were of the upper middle class. The radicalization of the Brotherhood began to take place after the peace process between Egypt and Israel, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, as well as their open criticism towards the Jordan-US relationship in the 1970s. Support for the Syrian branch of the Brotherhood also aided the radicalization of the group through open support and training for the rebel forces in Syria. The ideology began to transform into a more militant one which without it would not have the support of the Islamic radicals.[184]

The Jordanian Brotherhood has formed its own political party, the Islamic Action Front. In 1989 they become the largest group in parliament, with 23 out of 80 seats, and 9 other Islamist allies.[185] A Brother was elected president of the National Assembly and the cabinet formed in January 1991 included several MBs.[186] Its radicalization which calls for more militant support for Hamas in Palestine has come into direct conflict with its involvement in the parliament and overall political process. The Brotherhood claimed its acceptance of democracy and the democratic process but only within their own groups. There is a high degree of dissent amongst Brotherhood leaders who do not share the same values therefore undermining its acceptance and commitment to democracy.[citation needed]

In 2011, against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood "mobilized popular protests on a larger, more regular, and more oppositional basis than ever before".[187] and had uniquely positioned themselves as "the only traditional political actor to have remained prominent during [the] new phase of post-Arab Spring activism"[187] which led King Abdullah II and then-Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit to invite the Muslim Brotherhood to join Bakhit's cabinet, an offer they refused.[188] The Muslim Brotherhood also boycotted the 2011 Jordanian municipal elections and led the 2011-12 Jordanian protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and electoral reforms, which resulted in the firing of Prime Minister Bakhit and the calling of early general elections in 2013.[187]

As of late 2013, the movement in Jordan was described as being in "disarray".[189] The instability and conflict with the monarchy has led the relationship between the two to crumble. In 2015, some 400 members of the Muslim Brotherhood defected from the original group including top leaders and founding members, to establish another Islamic group, with an allegedly moderate stance. The defectors said that they didn't like how things were run in the group and due to the group's relations with Hamas, Qatar and Turkey, which put suspicion on the group questioning if they are under the influence and working for the benefit of these states and organizations on the expense of the Jordanian state.[190]

In 13 April 2016, Jordanian police raided and shut the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Amman. This comes despite the fact that the Jordanian branch cut ties with the mother Egyptian group in January 2016, a designated terrorist organization, a move that is considered to be exclusively cosmetic by experts. Jordanian authorities state that the reason of closure is because that the Brotherhood is unlicensed and is using the name of the defectors' licensed group. This comes after the Jordanian senate passed a new legislation for the regulation of political parties in 2014, the Muslim Brotherhood did not adhere by the regulations of the new law and so they did not renew their membership.[191]

"The government of Qatar continued to back the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, denouncing what Sheikh Tamim described as a 'military coup' that had taken place in Egypt in July 2013."[192] The ambassadors crisis also seriously threatened the GCC’s activities, adversely affected its functioning and could arguably even have led to its dissolution.[192]

Egyptian Brethren came to Kuwait in the 1950s as refugees from Arab nationalism and integrated into the education ministry and other parts of the state. The Brotherhood's charity arm in Kuwait is called Al Eslah (Social Reform Society)[193] and its political arm is called the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) or "Hadas".[194][195] Members of ICM have been elected to parliament and served in the government and are "widely believed to hold sway with the Ministry of Awqaf" (Islamic endowment) and Islamic Affairs, but have never reached a majority or even a plurality — "a fact that has required them to be pragmatic about working with other political groups".[193] During the Invasion of Kuwait, the Kuwait MB (along with other MB in the Gulf States) supported the American-Saudi coalition forces against Iraq and "quit the brotherhood's international agency in protest" over its pro-Sadam stand.[196] However following the Arab Spring and the crackdown on the Egyptian Brotherhood, the Saudi government has put “pressure on other states that have Muslim Brotherhood adherents, asking them to decree that the group is a terrorist organization”, and the local Kuwaiti and other Gulf state Brotherhoods have not been spared pressure from their local governments.[193]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia helped the Brotherhood financially for "over half a century",[22][23] but the two became estranged during the Gulf War, and enemies after the election of Mohamed Morsi. Inside the kingdom, before the crushing of the Egyptian MB, the brotherhood was called a group whose "many quiet supporters" made it "one of the few potential threats" to the royal family's control.[197]

The Brotherhood first had an impact inside Saudi Arabia in 1954 when thousands of Egyptian Brethren sought to escape president Gamal Abdel Nasser's clampdown, while (the largely illiterate) Saudi Arabia was looking for teachers—who were also conservative pious Arab Muslims—for its newly created public school system.[198] The Muslim Brotherhood's brand of Islam and Islamic politics differs from the strict Salafi creed, Wahhabiyya, officially held by the state of Saudi Arabia, and MB members "obeyed orders of the ruling family and ulama to not attempt to proselytize or otherwise get involved in religious doctrinal matters within the Kingdom. Nonetheless, the group "methodically ... took control of Saudi Arabia's intellectual life" by publishing books and participating in discussion circles and salons held by princes.[199] Although the organization had no "formal organizational presence" in the Kingdom,[200] (no political groups or parties are allowed to operate openly)[23] MB members became "entrenched both in Saudi society and in the Saudi state, taking a leading role in key governmental ministries".[201] In particular, many established themselves in Saudi educational system. One expert on Saudi affairs (Stephane Lacroix) has stated: "The education system is so controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, it will take 20 years to change—if at all. Islamists see education as their base" in Saudi Arabia.[202]

Relations between the Saudi ruling family and the Brotherhood became strained with Saudi opposition to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the willingness of Saudi government to allow US troops to be based in the Kingdom to fight Iraq.[201] The Brotherhood supported the Sahwah ("Awakening") movement that pushed for political change in the Kingdom.[203] In 2002, the then Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef denounced the Brotherhood, saying it was guilty of "betrayal of pledges and ingratitude" and was "the source of all problems in the Islamic world".[22] The ruling family was also alarmed by the Arab Spring and the example set by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with president Mohamed Morsi bringing an Islamist government to power by means of popular revolution and elections.[204]Sahwa figures published petitions for reform addressed to the royal government (in violation of Wahhabi quietist doctrine). After the overthrow of the Morsi government in Egypt, all the major Sahwa figures signed petitions and statements denouncing the removal of Morsi and the Saudi government support for it.[201]

In March 2014, in a "significant departure from its past official stance" the Saudi government declared the Brotherhood a "terrorist organization", followed with a royal decree announced that, from now on,

“belonging to intellectual or religious trends or groups that are extremist or categorized as terrorist at the local, regional or international level, as well supporting them, or showing sympathy for their ideas and methods in whichever way, or expressing support for them through whichever means, or offering them financial or moral support, or inciting others to do any of this or promoting any such actions in word or writing”

will be punished by a prison sentence “of no less than three years and no more than twenty years”.[201]

The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria was founded in the 1930s (according to lexicorient.com) or in 1945, a year before independence from France, (according to journalist Robin Wright). In the first decade or so of independence it was part of the legal opposition, and in the 1961 parliamentary elections it won ten seats (5.8% of the house). But after the 1963 coup that brought the secular Ba'ath Party to power it was banned.[205] It played a major role in the mainly Sunni-based movement that opposed the secularist, pan-Arabist Ba'ath Party. This conflict developed into an armed struggle that continued until culminating in the Hama uprising of 1982, when the rebellion was crushed by the military.[206]

Membership in the Syrian Brotherhood became a capital offense in Syria in 1980 (under Emergency Law 49, which was revoked in 2011), but the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Palestinian group, Hamas, was located in the Syria's capital Damascus, where it was given Syrian government support. This has been cited as an example of the lack of international centralization or even coordination of the Muslim Brotherhood.[207]

The Brotherhood is said to have "resurrected itself" and become the "dominant group" in the opposition by 2012 during the Syrian Civil War according to the Washington Post newspaper.[208] But by 2013 another source described it as having "virtually no influence on the conflict".[209] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad welcomed the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and remarked that "Arab identity is back on the right track after the fall from power of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which had used religion for its own political gain".[210]

Since 2014, the Muslim Brotherhood has been considered as terrorist in the UAE.[20][211] "The UAE considers the Muslim Brotherhood issue to be related to its own internal security, especially after the State Security Court in Abu Dhabi handed down tough penalties to members of "a Muslim Brotherhood cell" for attempting to overthrow the state." [192]

The Al Islah was founded in 1974. They belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.[212]

The Muslim Brothers fought with North Yemen in the NDF rebellion as Islamic Front. The Muslim Brotherhood is the political arm of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, commonly known as Al-Islah. Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh made substantial efforts to entrench the accusations of being in league with Al Qaeda.[213]

The Treasury Department of the US used the label "Bin Laden loyalist" for Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood's leader.[214]

The Muslim Brotherhood reached Algeria during the later years of the French colonial presence in the country (1830–1962).[citation needed] Sheikh Ahmad Sahnoun led the organization in Algeria between 1953 and 1954 during the French colonialism.[citation needed] Brotherhood members and sympathizers took part in the uprising against France in 1954–1962, but the movement was marginalized during the largely secular FLN one-party rule which was installed at independence in 1962. It remained unofficially active, sometimes protesting the government and calling for increased Islamization and Arabization of the country's politics.[citation needed]

When a multi-party system was introduced in Algeria in the early 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood formed the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP, previously known as Hamas), led by Mahfoud Nahnah until his death in 2003 (he was succeeded by present party leader Boudjerra Soltani). The Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria did not join the Front islamique du salut (FIS), which emerged as the leading Islamist group, winning the 1991 elections and which was banned in 1992 following a military coup d'état, although some Brotherhood sympathizers did. The Brotherhood subsequently also refused to join the violent post-coup uprising by FIS sympathizers and the Armed Islamic Groups (GIA) against the Algerian state and military which followed, and urged a peaceful resolution to the conflict and a return to democracy. It has thus remained a legal political organization and enjoyed parliamentary and government representation. In 1995, Sheikh Nahnah ran for President of Algeria finishing second with 25.38% of the popular vote. During the 2000s (decade), the party—led by Nahnah's successor Boudjerra Soltani—has been a member of a three-party coalition backing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

A group of the Muslim Brotherhood came to the Libyan kingdom in the 1950s as refugees escaping crackdown by the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, but it was not able to operate openly until after the First Libyan Civil War. They were viewed negatively by King Idris of Libya who had become increasingly wary of their activities. Muammar Gaddafi forbade all forms of Islamism in Libya and was an archenemy to the Muslim Brotherhood for long time. The group held its first public press conference on 17 November 2011, and on 24 December the Brotherhood announced that it would form the Justice and Construction Party (JCP) and contest the General National Congress elections the following year.[215][216] The Libyan Muslim Brotherhood has “little history of interactions with the masses.”[217]

The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya has come under widespread criticism, particularly for their alleged ties with extremist organizations operating in Libya.[223] In fact, the text of the U.S. Congress Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015 directly accuses the militias of the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood of “joining forces with United States designated terrorist organizations, particularly Ansar al-Sharia” who the United States blames for the attack on its compound in Benghazi.[224][225] There have been similar reports that those tasked with guarding the Benghazi consulate on the night of the assault were connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.[226]

The Libyan Muslim Brotherhood has lost much of its popular support since 2012 as the group was blamed for divisions in the country. Secular Libyan politicians have continued to voice concerns of the Brotherhood’s ties to extremist groups. In October 2017, spokesman of the Libyan National Army (LNA) colonel Ahmed Al Masmary claimed that “branches of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated to al-Qaeda” had joined forces with ISIS in Libya.[227] In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won only 25 of the 200 available seats.[228]

Changes to the demographic and political makeup of Mauritania in the 1970s heavily contributed to the growth of Islamism within Mauritanian society. Periods of severe drought resulted in urbanization, as large numbers of Mauritanians moved from the countryside to the cities, particularly Nouakchott, to escape the drought. This sharp increase in urbanization resulted in new civil associations being formed, and Mauritania's first Islamist organisation, known as Jemaa Islamiyya (Islamic Association) was formed by Mauritanians sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.[229]

There was increased activism relating to the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s, partially driven by members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.[229]

The Justice and Development Party was the largest vote-getter in Morocco's 2011 election, and as of May 2015, held the office of Prime Minister.[30] It is historically affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood,[citation needed] however, despite this, the party has reportedly "ostentatiously" praised the King of Morocco, while "loudly insisting that it is in no sense whatsoever a Muslim Brotherhood party"[30]—a development one source (Hussein Ibish), calls evidence of how "regionally discredited the movement has become".[citation needed]

Somalia's wing of the Muslim Brotherhood is known by the name Harakat Al-Islah or "Reform Movement".[citation needed] Muslim Brotherhood ideology reached Somalia in the early 1960s, but Al-Islah movement was formed in 1978 and slowly grew in the 1980s.[citation needed] Al-Islah has been described as "a generally nonviolent and modernizing Islamic movement that emphasizes the reformation and revival of Islam to meet the challenges of the modern world", whose "goal is the establishment of an Islamic state" and which "operates primarily in Mogadishu".[230] The organization structured itself loosely and was not openly visible on the political scene of Somali society.[citation needed]

Until the election of Hamas in Gaza, Sudan was the one country where the Brotherhood was most successful in gaining power, its members making up a large part of the government officialdom following the 1989 coup d'état by General Omar al-Bashir.[citation needed] However, the Sudanese government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated National Islamic Front (NIF) has come under considerable criticism for its human rights policies, links to terrorist groups, and war in southern Sudan and Darfur.[citation needed]

In 1945, a delegation from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt visited Sudan and held various meetings inside the country advocating and explaining their ideology.[231][need quotation to verify] Sudan has a long and deep history with the Muslim Brotherhood compared to many other countries. By April 1949, the first branch of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood organization emerged.[231][need quotation to verify] However, simultaneously, many Sudanese students studying in Egypt were introduced to the ideology of the Brotherhood. The Muslim student groups also began organizing in the universities during the 1940s, and the Brotherhood's main support base has remained to be college educated.[231][need quotation to verify] In order to unite them, in 1954, a conference was held, attended by various representatives from different groups that appeared to have the same ideology. The conference voted to establish a Unified Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood Organization based on the teachings of Imam Hassan Al-banna.[231][need quotation to verify]

An offshoot of the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Charter Front grew during the 1960, with Islamic scholar Hasan al-Turabi becoming its Secretary general in 1964.[232][need quotation to verify] The Islamic Charter Front (ICM) was renamed several times most recently being called the National Islamic Front (NIF). The Muslim Brotherhood/NIF's main objective in Sudan was to Islamize the society "from above" and to institutionalize the Islamic law throughout the country where they succeeded. To that end the party infiltrated the top echelons of the government where the education of party cadre, frequently acquired in the West, made them "indispensable". This approach was described by Turabi himself as the `jurisprudence of necessity`.[233][need quotation to verify]

Meeting resistance from non-Islamists, from already established Muslim organisations, and from non-Muslims in the south, the Sudanese NIF government under Turabi and the NIF organized a coup to overthrow a democratically elected government in 1989, organized the Popular Defense Force which committed "widespread, deliberate and systematic atrocities against hundreds of thousands of southern civilians" in the 1990s.[234] The NIF government also employed "widespread arbitrary and extrajudicial arrest, torture, and execution of labor union officials, military officers, journalists, political figures and civil society leaders".[234][need quotation to verify]

The views of at least some elements of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood were highlighted in an 3 August 2007 Al-Jazeera television interview of Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheikh Sadeq Abdallah bin Al-Majed. As translated by the Israeli-based MEMRI, Bin Al-Majed told his interviewer that "the West, and the Americans in particular ... are behind all the tragedies that are taking place in Darfur", as they "realized that it Darfur is full of treasures"; that "Islam does not permit a non-Muslim to rule over Muslims"; and that he had issued a fatwa prohibiting the vaccination of children, on the grounds that the vaccinations were "a conspiracy of the Jews and Freemasons".[235]

Like their counterparts elsewhere in the Islamic world in general, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has influenced the Tunisian Islamists.[citation needed] One of the notable organization that was influenced and inspired by the Brotherhood is Ennahda (The Revival or Renaissance Party), which is Tunisia's major Islamist political grouping. An Islamist[who?] founded the organization in 1981.[citation needed] While studying in Damascus and Paris, Rashid Ghannouchi embraced the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he disseminated on his return to Tunisia.[citation needed]

As affirmed on 14 February 2003 by the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia, the Muslim Brotherhood coordinated the creation of an Islamic organisation called The Supreme Military Majlis ul-Shura of the United Forces of Caucasian Mujahedeen (error: {{lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), led by Ibn Al-Khattab and Basaev; an organisation that committed multiple terror-attack acts in Russia and was allegedly financed by drug trafficking, counterfeiting of coins and racketeering.[237]

In 1996, the first representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, Kamal el-Helbawy, an Egyptian, was able to say that "there are not many members here, but many Muslims in the UK intellectually support the aims of the Muslim Brotherhood".[citation needed]

In September 1999, the Muslim Brotherhood opened a "global information centre" in London.[citation needed]

In April 2014, David Cameron, who was the UK prime minister at the time, launched an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood's activities in the UK and its alleged extremist activities.[238] Egypt welcomed the decision.[citation needed] After Cameron's decision, the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly moved its headquarters from London to Austria attempting to avoid the investigation.[citation needed]

Establishing an effective and a stable Islamic movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims' causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims' efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic state wherever it is.[240][241]

A somewhat less benign-sounding goal from the same document, one that gives some observers pause and is less often referred to, occurs on page 7 of 18 (in the translation referred to):

The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions. [242][243]

During the Holy Land Foundation trial in 2007, several documents were introduced with the intent to incriminate the Brotherhood were unsuccessful in convincing the courts that the Brotherhood was involved in subversive activities. In one, dated 1984 called "Ikhwan in America" (Brotherhood in America), the author alleges that the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US include going to camps to do weapons training (referred to as special work by the Muslim Brotherhood),[244] as well as engaging in counter-espionage against US government agencies such as the FBI and CIA (referred to as Securing the Group).[245] Another (dated 1991) outlined a strategy for the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States that involved “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within”.[246][247][248]

Penned in May of 1991 by a man named Mohamed Akram Adlouni, the 'Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America' was discovered during an FBI raid of a Virginia home in 2004. The document was admitted as an exhibit to the court during the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial, in which that group was charged with laundering money. After the trial, the document became public. But, according to a 2009 opinion by the presiding judge, the memo was not considered 'supporting evidence' for that alleged money laundering scheme, nor any other conspiracy.[249]

Despite the apparent impotence of the documents, they continued to be widely publicized in American conservative circles.[246][250]

U.S. Congress attempts to pass legislation criminalizing the group, put forward by the 114th Congress, were defeated. The Bill, called the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015, was introduced to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). In it the bill states that the Department of State should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. If passed, the bill would have required the State Department to report to Congress within 60 days whether or not the group fits the criteria, and if it did not, to state which specific criteria it had not met.[251] Senator Cruz announced the legislation along with Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) in November 2015. However, it did not pass.[citation needed]

This bill came after a handful of foreign countries made similar moves in recent years including Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and others, and after, according to Cruz, recent evidence emerged suggesting that the group supports terrorism. The senator further alleged that the group’s stated goal is to wage violent jihad against its enemies, which includes the United States, and the fact that the Obama administration has listed numerous group members on its terror list. Cruz further stated that the bill would "reject the fantasy that [the] parent institution [of the Muslim Brotherhood] is a political entity that is somehow separate from these violent activities".[252]

Conservatives in the Congress believe that the group is a breeding ground for radical Islam. Previous attempts were made in the previous year by Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), but it failed largely due to her allegation that Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton' aide, had links to the organization, a statement which was dismissed by establishment Democrats and Republicans.[252]

In February 2016, the House Judiciary Committee approved the legislation in a 17 to 10 vote, which if enacted could increase grounds for enforcing criminal penalties and give permission to the Secretary of Treasury to block financial transactions and freeze assets of anyone who has showed material support for the group.[254] Scholars against this classification claim that the group simply promotes Islamism, or the belief that society should be governed according to Islamic values and Sharia law.[255]

Past U.S. presidential administrations have examined whether to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and have decided not to do so.[256] During the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. government investigated the Brotherhood and associated Islamist groups, but "after years of investigations, ... the U.S. and other governments, including Switzerland's, closed investigations of the Brotherhood leaders and financial group for lack of evidence, and removed most of the leaders from sanctions lists."[257] The Obama administration was also pressured to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, but did not do so.[258][259]

The Brotherhood was criticised by Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2007 for its refusal to advocate the violent overthrow of the Mubarak government. Issam al-Aryan, a top Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood figure, denounced the al-Qaeda leader: "Zawahiri's policy and preaching bore dangerous fruit and had a negative impact on Islam and Islamic movements across the world".[260]

Dubai police chief, Dhahi Khalfan, accused Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood of an alleged plot to overthrow the UAE government. He referred to the Muslim Brotherhood as "dictators" who want "Islamist rule in all the Gulf States".[261]

The Sudanese Muzammil Faqiri attacked and slammed the Muslim Brotherhood for murdering people and said that Takfir wal-Hijra, ISIS, Sururism and Al-Qaeda were products of the Muslim Brotherhood.[262]

Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari denounced the Islamist and leftist excuse used by people with hidden motives, who say that Muslim Brotherhood people being tortured is a reason for radical religious extremism.[263]

The label of "colonialist movement" was used against the Muslim Brotherhood, which was accused of anti-Nubian discrimination and racism by Osama Farouq, a Nubian leader in Egypt.[264]

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose.You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available.(August 2017)

Numerous officials and reporters question the sincerity of the Muslim Brotherhood's pronouncements. These critics include, but are not limited to:

Juan Zarate, former U.S. White House counterterrorism chief (quoted in the conservative publication, FrontPage Magazine): "The Muslim Brotherhood is a group that worries us not because it deals with philosophical or ideological ideas but because it defends the use of violence against civilians".[266][267]

Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., a prominent U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative who was one of the founding members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under William Donovan, divulged the confessions of numerous members of the Muslim Brotherhood. These confessions resulted from the harsh interrogations done against them by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, for their alleged involvement in the assassination attempt made against Nasser (an assassination attempt that many believe was staged by Nasser himself).[268] They revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood was merely a "guild" that fulfilled the goals of western interests: "Nor was that all. Sound beatings of the Moslem Brotherhood organizers who had been arrested revealed that the organization had been thoroughly penetrated, at the top, by the British, American, French and Soviet intelligence services, any one of which could either make active use of it or blow it up, whichever best suited its purposes. Important lesson: fanaticism is no insurance against corruption; indeed, the two are highly compatible".[269]

Former U.S. Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross, who told Asharq Alawsat newspaper that the Muslim Brotherhood is a global, not a local organization, governed by a Shura (Consultative) Council, which rejects cessation of violence in Israel, and supports violence to achieve its political objectives elsewhere too.[270]

The Interior Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood organization was the cause of most problems in the Arab world. 'The Brotherhood has done great damage to Saudi Arabia', he said. Prince Naif accused the foremost Islamist group in the Arab world of harming the interests of Muslims. 'All our problems come from the Muslim Brotherhood. We have given too much support to this group..." "The Muslim Brotherhood has destroyed the Arab world', he said. 'Whenever they got into difficulty or found their freedom restricted in their own countries, Brotherhood activists found refuge in the Kingdom which protected their lives... But they later turned against the Kingdom...' The Muslim Brotherhood has links to groups across the Arab world, including Jordan's main parliamentary opposition, the 'Islamic Action Front', and the 'Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas'". The Interior Minister's outburst against the Brotherhood came amid mounting criticism in the United States of Saudi Arabia's longstanding support for Islamist groups around the world..."[271]

Sarah Mousa of Al Jazeera reported on the Muslim Brotherhood's highly improbable claim that opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammad ElBaradei (who has had a "rocky" relationship with the US) was "an American agent", and observed that the since-defunct Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Shura Council's support of the slander demonstrated a lack of commitment to democracy.[272]

Scholar Carrie Rosefsky Wickham finds official Brotherhood documents ambiguous on the issue of democracy: "This raises the question of whether the Brotherhood is supporting a transition to democracy as an end in itself or as a first step toward the ultimate establishment of a political system based not on the preferences of the Egyptian people but the will of God as they understand it".[273]

In 1997, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mustafa Mashhur told journalist Khalid Daoud[274] that he thought Egypt's Coptic Christians and Orthodox Jews should pay the long-abandoned jizya poll tax, levied on non-Muslims in exchange for protection from the state, rationalized by the fact that non-Muslims are exempt from military service while it is compulsory for Muslims. He went on to say, "we do not mind having Christian members in the People's Assembly... [T]he top officials, especially in the army, should be Muslims since we are a Muslim country... This is necessary because when a Christian country attacks the Muslim country and the army has Christian elements, they can facilitate our defeat by the enemy".[275] According to The Guardian newspaper, the proposal caused an "uproar" among Egypt's 16 million Coptic Christians and "the movement later backtracked".[276]

According to authors writing in the Council on Foreign Relations magazine Foreign Affairs: "At various times in its history, the group has used or supported violence and has been repeatedly banned in Egypt for attempting to overthrow Cairo's secular government. Since the 1970s, however, the Egyptian Brotherhood has disavowed violence and sought to participate in Egyptian politics".[277] Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East editor for the BBC, called it "conservative and non-violent".[278] The Brotherhood "has condemned" terrorism and the 9/11 attacks.[279][280]

The Brotherhood itself denounces the "catchy and effective terms and phrases" like "fundamentalist" and "political Islam" which it claims are used by "Western Media" to pigeonhole the group, and points to its "15 Principles" for an Egyptian National Charter, including "freedom of personal conviction ... opinion ... forming political parties ... public gatherings ... free and fair elections ..."[37]

Similarly, some analysts maintain that whatever the source of modern Jihadi terrorism and the actions and words of some rogue members, the Brotherhood now has little in common with radical Islamists and modern jihadists who often condemn the Brotherhood as too moderate. They also deny the existence of any centralized and secretive global Muslim Brotherhood leadership.[281] Some claim that the origins of modern Muslim terrorism are found in Wahhabi ideology, not that of the Muslim Brotherhood.[282][283]

According to anthropologist Scott Atran, the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood even in Egypt has been overstated by Western commentators. He estimates that it can count on only 100,000 militants (out of some 600,000 dues paying members) in a population of more than 80 million, and that such support as it does have among Egyptians—an often cited figure is 20 percent to 30 percent—is less a matter of true attachment than an accident of circumstance: secular opposition groups that might have countered it were suppressed for many decades, but in driving the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, a more youthful constellation of secular movements has emerged to threaten the Muslim Brotherhood's dominance of the political opposition.[284] This has not yet been the case, however, as evidenced by the Brotherhood's strong showing in national elections. Polls also indicate that a majority of Egyptians and other Arab nations endorse laws based on "Sharia".[285][286]

On 29 June 2011, as the Brotherhood's political power became more apparent and solidified following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the United States announced that it would reopen formal diplomatic channels with the group, with whom it had suspended communication as a result of suspected terrorist activity. The next day, the Brotherhood's leadership announced that they welcomed the diplomatic overture.[287]

In September 2014, Brotherhood leaders were expelled from Qatar. The New York Times reported: "Although the Brotherhood’s views are not nearly as conservative as the puritanical, authoritarian version of Islamic law enforced in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis and other gulf monarchies fear the group because of its broad organization, its mainstream appeal and its calls for elections".[288]

In January 2017, during his confirmation hearing, the current US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, referred to the Muslim Brotherhood, along with Al-Qaeda, as an agent of radical Islam—a characterization that Human Rights Watch member Sarah Leah Whitson criticized on social media, disseminating a statement from the HRW Washington director saying that the conflation of the group with violent extremists was inaccurate.[296] The following month, The New York Times reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump was considering an order designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.[297][298]

The Muslim Brotherhood was criticized by Secretary Tillerson.[299] The terrorist designation for the Muslim Brotherhood is opposed by Human Rights Watch and The New York Times, both liberal-leaning institutions.[300] The potential terrorist designation was criticized, in particular, by Human Rights Watch member Laura Pitter.[298]The New York Times set forth its opposition in an editorial that claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood is a collection of movements, and argued that the organization as a whole does not merit the terrorist designation: "While the Brotherhood calls for a society governed by Islamic law, it renounced violence decades ago, has supported elections and has become a political and social organization".[301] The designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is opposed by the Brennan Center for Justice, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Council of American-Islamic Relations and American Civil Liberties Union.[302]

Gehad El-Haddad, a Muslim Brotherhood member, denied that terrorism was practiced by the Muslim Brotherhood in an editorial published by The New York Times.[304]

In a report by the Carnegie Middle East Center, Nathan Brown and Michele Dunne argued that "designating the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization may actually backfire," writing: "The sweeping measure to declare the Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization now being contemplated not only does not accord with the facts, but is also more likely to undermine than achieve its ostensible purpose and could result in collateral damage affecting other U.S. policy goals. The greatest damage might be in the realm of public diplomacy, as using a broad brush to paint all Muslim Brotherhood organizations as terrorists would be understood by many Muslims around the world as a declaration of war against non-violent political Islamists—and indeed against Islam itself."[305]

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt avoids directly implicating itself materially in terrorism while it supports terrorism with words and encourages it, according to WINEP fellow Eric Trager, who advocated pushing them into a corner instead of designating them due to issues with materially connecting them to terrorism other than with their words.[306]

Civil rights lawyer and adjunct professor of law Arjun Singh Sethi wrote that the push to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization was based on anti-Islam conspiracy theories, noting that "Two previous U.S. administrations concluded that it does not engage in terrorism, as did a recent report by the British government."[308]

Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post condemned the movement to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist group.[309]

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intelligence report from January 2017 warned that designation of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization "may fuel extremism" and harm relations with U.S. allies. The report noted that the Brotherhood had "rejected violence as a matter of official policy and opposed al-Qa'ida and ISIS" and that while "a minority of MB [Muslim Brotherhood] members have engaged in violence, most often in response to harsh regime repression, perceived foreign occupation, or civil conflicts," designation of the organization as a terrorist group would prompt concern from U.S. allies in the Middle East "that such a step could destabilize their internal politics, feed extremist narratives, and anger Muslims worldwide." The CIA analysis stated: "MB groups enjoy widespread support across the Near East-North Africa region and many Arabs and Muslims worldwide would view an MB designation as an affront to their core religious and societal values. Moreover, a US designation would probably weaken MB leaders' arguments against violence and provide ISIS and al-Qa'ida additional grist for propaganda to win followers and support, particularly for attacks against US interests."[310]

An article against designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization was written by Shadi Hamid.[311]

Qatar's relationship with Muslim Brotherhood has been a persistent point of contention between Qatar and other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Egypt, which view the Brotherhood as a serious threat to social stability in those countries.[312]

Following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Qatar allowed some Brotherhood members who fled Egypt to live in the country. The Qatar-based Al Jazeera "housed them in a five-star Doha hotel and granted them regular airtime for promoting their cause"; the station also broadcast protests against the post-Brotherhood authorities in Egypt by the Brotherhood, "and in some cases allegedly paid Muslim Brothers for the footage."[312] Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain said that Qatar had violated the Gulf Cooperation Council rule against interference in the internal affairs of other members, and in March 2014 all three countries withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar. After two months the diplomatic tensions, the issue with resolved, with Brotherhood leaders departing from Doha later in 2014.[312]

However, "from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE’s standpoint, Qatar never lived up to the 2014 agreement and continued to serve as the nexus of the Brotherhood's regional networks."[312] This led to the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis, which is viewed as being precipitated in large part by a conflict over the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt made 13 demands of the government of Qatar, six of which reflect the group's opposition to Qatar's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and demand that the country cut ties to the Brotherhood.[312]

^Kull, Steven (2011). Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America. Brookings Institution Press. p. 167. The Muslim Brotherhood's stated goal has been to instill the Quran and sunnah as the `sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state.`

^Paulo G. Pinto, "Sufism and the religious debate in Syria." Taken from Public Islam and the Common Good, pg. 184. Volume 95 of Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia. Eds. Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickelman. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2004. ISBN9789004136212

^Husaini, Ishak Musa (1956). The Moslem Brethren. Beirut: Khayat's College Book Cooperative. pp. 62–3. [speech by l-Banna]The Brethren understand Islam in its fullest and most comprehensive implications, that it must have supervision over all affairs of individual and collective life and that everything must come under its rule and conform to its teachings. Whoever is a Muslim merely in his worship but imitates the non-believer in all other things is no better than an infidel.

^Johnson, Ian (5 February 2011). "Washington's Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. One of the leaders, according to Eisenhower’s appointment book, was “The Honorable Saeed Ramahdan, Delegate of the Muslim Brothers”.* The person in question (in more standard romanization, Said Ramadan), was the son-in-law of the Brotherhood’s founder and at the time widely described as the group’s “foreign minister” (He was also the father of the controversial Swiss scholar of Islam, Tariq Ramadan).

^Egyptian cleric Safwat Hegazi spoke at the announcement rally for the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Morsi and expressed his hope and belief that Morsi would liberate Gaza, restore the Caliphate of the "United States of the Arabs" with Jerusalem as its capital, and that "our cry shall be: 'Millions of martyrs march towards Jerusalem.'"

^El Rashidi, Yasmine (7 February 2013). "Egypt: The Rule of the Brotherhood". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 24 September 2013. The Islamists’ TV channels and press called the completion of the draft constitution an “achievement,” “historic,” “an occasion,” “another step toward achieving the goals of the revolution.” The independent and opposition press described it as “an Islamist coup.”

^El Rashidi, Yasmine (26 September 2013). "Egypt: The Misunderstood Agony". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 24 September 2013. ... 3.5 or 33 million Egyptians (the counts vary according to whom you choose to believe) who had taken to the streets on June 30 as part of the Tamarod movement. This protest was a symbolic vote of "no confidence" in President Morsi, urging him to step down, to call early elections, and to hand power to the chief justice in the interim.

^Ali, Hadi (14 August 2015). "Kurdistan and the Challenge of Islamism" (Interview). Interview with Ali, Rebaz. Hudson Institute. In Iran, there is a big Islamic organization called “Islah and Dawa Group” that belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood. They are not registered as a political group because political activities are not allowed in Iran. Obviously, the regime in Iran is a sectarian regime and will always try to limit the activities of local Sunnis. Islah and Dawa are not happy with the regime’s sectarian policies, but I think there is very little they can do if they want to stay away from serious trouble. Because of their Muslim Brotherhood ties, they have good relations with the KIU.

^Ibish, Hussein (5 October 2013). "Is this the end of the failed Muslim Brotherhood project?". The National. Retrieved 8 October 2013. Hamas in Gaza is undergoing an unprecedented crisis. It bizarrely made no effort to convince the new Egyptian government that it was not a hostile force, especially with regard to security in Sinai. It is therefore being treated like one. Egypt has imposed an unparalleled blockade, leaving the economy in shambles. For the first time since 2007, it is now possible to imagine a Gaza no longer under Hamas control.

^Susser, Asher. "Jordan 2011: Uneasy Lies the Head"(PDF). Brandeis University. Retrieved September 5, 2017. the King himself had entered into dialogue with the organization in early February, just a few days after Bakhit’s appointment and following years of estrangement. Bakhit even invited the Brotherhood to join his cabinet.

^"No satisfaction". The Economist. 1 February 2014. Long fearful of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose many quiet supporters in the kingdom represent one of the few potential threats to their own control, the Al Sauds strongly backed their removal from government in Egypt.

^House, Karen Elliott (2012). On Saudi Arabia: Its People, past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future. Knopf. p. 144. In the 1960s, when Faisal became king, he championed the creation of public schools across the kingdom for boys—and also girls. The largely illiterate nation had few qualified teachers, so the government dispatched emissaries abroad, mostly to Egypt and Jordan, to recruit teachers with substantive skills who also were devout Muslims. A hallmark of King Faisal's reign was an effort to create an Islamic alliance in the Middle East to counter the Arab nationalism of Egypt's president, Gamel Abdel Nasser. When Nasser, a nationalist strongman and sworn enemy of Saudi Arabia, turned on his country's conservative Muslim Brotherhood, King Faisal welcomed those religious conservatives into Saudi Arabia as scholars and teachers, reinforcing the fundamentalist hold on the young Ministry of Education, founded in 1954 under his predecessor and half-brother, King Saud.

^Kepel, Gilles (2006). The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West. Belknap Press. pp. 173–74.

^Ibish, Hussein (5 October 2013). "Is this the end of the failed Muslim Brotherhood project?". The National. Retrieved 8 October 2013. The Syrian Brotherhood was the most influential political force in the opposition after the uprising against the Damascus dictatorship began. But now they seem to have virtually no influence on the conflict or its likely outcome.

^MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute posted this at their website, introducing it with the following: "On 29 November, 'Ain-Al-Yaqeen, a weekly news magazine published online by the Saudi royal family, released an English translation of an interview with Saudi Minister of Interior Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz; the interview originally appeared in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Siyasa. The following are excerpts from the translation[1] as it appeared in the Saudi weekly."

Mayer, Thomas (1982) "The Military Force of Islam: The Society of the Muslim Brethren and the Palestine Question, 1945–1948" In Kedourie, Elie and Haim, Sylvia G. (1982) Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel Frank Cass, London, pp. 100–117, ISBN0-7146-3169-8

1.
Mohamed Badie
–
Mohammed Badie is the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has headed the Egyptian branch of the international Muslim Brotherhood organization since 2010, before becoming general guide, Badie had been a member of the groups governing council, the Guidance Bureau, since 1996. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities on 20 August 2013, on 28 April 2014, after an eight-minute trial in which Badie could not present his defence, he was sentenced to death, along with 682 others who are allegedly Muslim Brotherhood supporters. He was sentenced to life in prison on 15 September 2014 and he received a sixth life sentence on 22 August 2015. Badie was born on 7 August 1943 in the city of Mahalla al-Kubra. He received a degree in medicine at Cairo in 1965. After 9 years, he was paroled along with almost all other Brotherhood prisoners in 1974 by the Egyptian president, Badie went on to continue his studies and begin a teaching career at various Egyptian universities. He became a professor of pathology at the veterinary school of Beni Suef University. In July 2013, Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was removed by a coup détat after the June protests, a travel ban was put on Badie as well as Badies deputy Khairat el-Shater. Badies arrest was ordered on 10 July 2013 for inciting the violence in Cairo on Monday in which more than 50 people were killed, on 14 July 2013 Egypts military-installed prosecutor general Hisham Barakat ordered his assets to be frozen. Badie was arrested on 20 August 2013 and his two deputies were also arrested and he was due to stand trial on 25 August. Badie was succeeded as the Muslim Brotherhoods Supreme Guide by Mahmoud Ezzat on a temporary basis, on 29 October 2013, a three-judge panel stepped down from the proceedings, citing uneasiness over the trial as trial proceedings were disrupted by named defendants. On 11 December 2013, a panel of judges withdrew from the trial. Along with nine others, Badie was sentenced to death, while there was no sentence yet for additional 37 defendants in the case, on 5 July 2014 ten of them were sentenced to death by the Banha Criminal Court, the remaining including Badie to life in prison. On 15 July 2013, five died in clashes in Giza. On 8 September 2013, Egypt’s prosecutor-general referred Badie and 14 others to the criminal court, the same judge confirmed the death sentence on 21 June 2014 in 183 cases, including Badies. Badie stated that the U. S. is immoral and doomed to collapse and he accused the Palestinian Authority of selling out the Palestinian cause, adding that a third intifada was about to erupt. Badie also stated that Resistance is the only solution against the Zio-American arrogance and tyranny, and all we need is for the Arab and Muslim peoples to stand behind it and support it

2.
Ismailia
–
Ismailia is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Known in Egypt as The City of Beauty and Enchantment, Ismailia is situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, the city has a population of approximately 750,000 inhabitants. It is located halfway between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south. The Canal widens at that point to include Lake Timsah, one of the Bitter Lakes linked by the Canal, Ismailia was founded in 1863, during the construction of the Suez Canal, by Khedive Ismail the Magnificent, after whom the city is named. Following the Battle of Kafr-el-Dawwar in 1882 the British established a base there, the head office of the Suez Canal Authority is located in Ismailia at the shore of Lake Timsah. It still has a number of buildings dating from British. Most of these buildings are used by Canal employees and officials. During World War I the British had an air base there, in 1973 the Battle of Ismailia took place in the city. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Ismailia by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928, an underground paramilitary wing was established in the 1940s, primarily to fight British occupation forces. In the early 1950s, Ismailia hosted the British Military HQ, British forces pulled out of Ismailia in 1954. On 1982.12.17 an Eparchy of Ismayliah was established on territory split off from the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria and they face educational problems schools all around Egypt face. Private tutoring is widely accessible and is almost a requirement for all students. Two international schools, Manar Language School and Educational Language Complex School offer American Diploma, Ismailia is the home of Suez Canal University, established in 1976 to serve the region of Suez Canal and Sinai. Suez Canal University now is one of the fastest growing institutions in Egypt with many students studying abroad. The new university of Suez Canal University was established with the help of the Chinese Government, Ismailia hosts two important festivals each year. The first is the International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts that is held in June, in June 2014 the 17th consecutive festival was organized. The second is the Ismailia International Folklore Arts Festival that is held in September, in this festival folkloric troupes from all around the globe meet in Ismailia, where they perform folkloric dances representing the culture of their countries. A major attraction is the Ismailia Museum which was built in 1932, visitors will find a variety of significant archaeological finds especially from sites in the Ismailia governorate such as Tell el-Maskhuta, from North Sinai, and from Upper Egypt

3.
Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם‎, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian

4.
Cairo
–
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat

5.
Sunni Islam
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service

6.
Islamism
–
Islamism is a concept whose meaning has been debated in both public and academic contexts. It is commonly used interchangeably with the terms political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism and these movements have arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence, redefining politics and even borders according to Robin Wright. Some authors hold the term Islamic activism to be synonymous and preferable to Islamism, Central and prominent figures of modern Islamism include Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abul Ala Maududi, and Ruhollah Khomeini. Some Islamist thinkers emphasize peaceful political processes, whereas Sayyid Qutb in particular called for violence, however, Qutb, unlike modern extremists, denounced the killing of innocents. Following the Arab Spring, some Islamist currents became heavily involved in politics, while others spawned the most aggressive and ambitious Islamist militia to date. A theocratic ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society by law, subsequently, clarified to be, the desire to impose any given interpretation of Islam on society. A movement so broad and flexible it reaches out to everything to everyone in Islam, making it unsustainable. and at the extremes, a violent vehicle for rejectionists and radicals. All who seek to Islamize their environment, whether in relation to their lives in society, their circumstances, or the workplace. Moderate and reformist Islamists who accept and work within the process include parties like the Tunisian Ennahda Movement. Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan is basically a socio-political and democratic Vanguard party but has gained political influence through military coup détats in the past. The Islamist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine participate in the democratic, following the Arab Spring, Roy has described Islamism as increasingly interdependent with democracy in much of the Arab Muslim world, such that neither can now survive without the other. While Islamist political culture itself may not be democratic, Islamists need democratic elections to maintain their legitimacy, at the same time, their popularity is such that no government can call itself democratic that excludes mainstream Islamist groups. The term, which denoted the religion of Islam, first appeared in English as Islamismus in 1696. The term appears in the U. S. Supreme Court decision in In Re Ross, the term Islamism acquired its contemporary connotations in French academia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From French, it began to migrate to the English language in the mid-1980s, a 2003 article in Middle East Quarterly states, In summation, the term Islamism enjoyed its first run, lasting from Voltaire to the First World War, as a synonym for Islam. Enlightened scholars and writers generally preferred it to Mohammedanism, eventually both terms yielded to Islam, the Arabic name of the faith, and a word free of either pejorative or comparative associations. To all intents and purposes, Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism have become synonyms in contemporary American usage, the AP Stylebook entry for Islamist now reads as follows, An advocate or supporter of a political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. Do not use as a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations, al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc

7.
Religious conservatism
–
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since used to describe a wide range of views. There is no set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place. Thus conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a range of issues. In contrast to the definition of conservatism, political theorists such as Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social. In Great Britain, conservative ideas emerged in the Tory movement during the Restoration period, Toryism supported a hierarchical society with a monarch who ruled by divine right. Tories opposed the idea that sovereignty derived from the people, and rejected the authority of parliament, Robert Filmers Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings, published posthumously in 1680 but written before the English Civil War of 1642–1651, became accepted as the statement of their doctrine. However, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 destroyed this principle to some degree by establishing a government in England. Faced with defeat, the Tories reformed their movement, now holding that sovereignty was vested in the three estates of Crown, Lords, and Commons rather than solely in the Crown, Toryism became marginalized during the long period of Whig ascendancy in the 18th century. Conservatives typically see Richard Hooker as the father of conservatism, along with the Marquess of Halifax, David Hume. Halifax promoted pragmatism in government, whilst Hume argued against political rationalism and utopianism, Burke served as the private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and as official pamphleteer to the Rockingham branch of the Whig party. Together with the Tories, they were the conservatives in the late 18th century United Kingdom, Burkes views were a mixture of liberal and conservative. He supported the American Revolution of 1765–1783 but abhorred the violence of the French Revolution and he insisted on standards of honor derived from the medieval aristocratic tradition, and saw the aristocracy as the nations natural leaders. That meant limits on the powers of the Crown, since he found the institutions of Parliament to be better informed than commissions appointed by the executive and he favored an established church, but allowed for a degree of religious toleration. Burke justified the order on the basis of tradition, tradition represented the wisdom of the species and he valued community. Burke was a leading theorist in his day, finding extreme idealism an endangerment to broader liberties, despite their influence on future conservative thought, none of these early contributors were explicitly involved in Tory politics. Hooker lived in the 16th century, long before the advent of toryism, whilst Hume was an apolitical philosopher, Burke described himself as a Whig. Shortly after Burkes death in 1797, conservatism revived as a political force as the Whigs suffered a series of internal divisions

8.
Anti-communism
–
Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. It reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States, anti-communism has been an element of movements of many different positions, including capitalist, liberal, socialist, anarchist, and fascist viewpoints. They accuse communists of causing several famines, such as the Russian Famine of 1921, some anti-communists see both communism and fascism as totalitarianism, seeing similarity between the actions of communist and fascist governments. Opponents argue that communist parties that have come to power have tended to be intolerant of political opposition. Communist states have also accused of creating a new ruling class, with powers. Examples of left-wing critics of Communist states and parties are Boris Souveraine, Bayard Rustin, Irving Howe, the American Federation of Labor has always been strongly anti-Communist. The more leftist CIO purged its Communists in 1947 and has been staunchly anti-Communist ever since, in Britain, the Labour Party strenuously resisted Communist efforts to infiltrate its ranks and take control of locals in the 1930s. Although some anarchists describe themselves as communists, all anarchists criticize authoritarian Communist parties and states and they argue that Marxist concepts such as dictatorship of the proletariat and state ownership of the means of production are anathema to anarchism. Some anarchists criticize communism from an individualist point of view, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin debated with Karl Marx in the First International, arguing that the Marxist state is another form of oppression. He loathed the idea of a vanguard party ruling the masses from above, anarchists initially participated in, and rejoiced over, the 1917 revolution as an example of workers taking power for themselves. However, after the October revolution, it became evident that the Bolsheviks, what is needed is local construction by local forces … Russia has already become a Soviet Republic only in name. Many anarchists fought against Russian, Spanish and Greek Communists, many were killed by them, such as Lev Chernyi, Camillo Berneri, neither Marxs 10-point plan nor the rest of the manifesto say anything about who has the right to carry out the plan. Milton Friedman argued that the absence of economic activity makes it too easy for repressive political leaders to grant themselves coercive powers. Friedmans view was shared by Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Objectivists who follow Ayn Rand are strongly anti-Communist and this is demonstrated, they believe, by the comparative prosperity of free market and socialist economies. Objectivist Ayn Rand writes that communist leaders typically claim to work for the common good, many ex-communists have turned into anti-communists. Mikhail Gorbachev turned from a Communist into a social democrat, milovan Đilas, was a former Yugoslav Communist official, who became a prominent dissident and critic of Communism. Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish Communist who became a famous anti-communist, the God That Failed is a 1949 book which collects together six essays with the testimonies of a number of famous ex-Communists, who were writers and journalists

9.
Political spectrum
–
A political spectrum is a system of classifying different political positions upon one or more geometric axes that symbolize independent political dimensions. Most long-standing spectra include a wing and left wing, which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution. According to the simplest left–right axis, communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. Those with an intermediate outlook are classified as centrists or moderates, politics that rejects the conventional left–right spectrum is known as syncretic politics. Political scientists have noted that a single left–right axis is insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs. As seen from the Speakers seat at the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right, originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was the Ancien Régime. The Right thus implied support for aristocratic or royal interests, and the church, while The Left implied support for republicanism, secularism, and civil liberties. Because the political franchise at the start of the revolution was relatively narrow, the original Left represented mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie and their political interests in the French Revolution lay with opposition to the aristocracy, and so they found themselves allied with the early capitalists. However, this did not mean that their interests lay with the laissez-faire policies of those representing them politically. As capitalist economies developed, the aristocracy became less relevant and were replaced by capitalist representatives. This evolution has often pulled parliamentary politicians away from laissez-faire economic policies, for almost a century, social scientists have considered the problem of how best to describe political variation. In 1950, Leonard W. Submitting the results to factor analysis and this system was derived empirically, rather than devising a political model on purely theoretical grounds and testing it, Fergusons research was exploratory. As a result of method, care must be taken in the interpretation of Fergusons three factors, as factor analysis will output an abstract factor whether an objectively real factor exists or not. Although replication of the Nationalism factor was inconsistent, the finding of Religionism and Humanitarianism had a number of replications by Ferguson, shortly afterward, Hans Eysenck began researching political attitudes in Great Britain. He believed that there was something similar about the National Socialists on the one hand. Submitting this value questionnaire to the process of factor analysis used by Ferguson. Such analysis produces a factor whether or not it corresponds to a real-world phenomenon, Eysencks dimensions of R and T were found by factor analyses of values in Germany and Sweden, France, and Japan. According to Eysenck, members of both ideologies were tough-minded, in this context, Eysenck carried out studies on nazism and communist groups, claiming to find members of both groups to be more dominant and more aggressive than control groups

10.
Right-wing politics
–
Hierarchy and inequality may be viewed as natural results of traditional social differences or the competition in market economies. The term right-wing can generally refer to the conservative or reactionary section of a party or system. The original Right in France was formed as a reaction against the Left, and comprised those politicians supporting hierarchy, tradition, the use of the expression la droite became prominent in France after the restoration of the monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the Ultra-royalists. The people of English-speaking countries did not apply the terms right, from the 1830s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from nobility and aristocracy towards capitalism. This general economic shift toward capitalism affected centre right movements such as the British Conservative Party, in the United States, the Right includes both economic and social conservatives. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right, in the successive legislative assemblies, monarchists who supported the Ancien Régime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side. A major figure on the right was Joseph de Maistre, who argued for a form of conservatism. Throughout the 19th century, the line dividing Left and Right in France was between supporters of the republic and supporters of the monarchy. In British politics, the right and left came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s in debates over the Spanish Civil War. The meaning of right-wing varies across societies, historical epochs, and political systems, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, in liberal democracies, the political Right opposes socialism and social democracy. Right-wing parties include conservatives, Christian democrats, classical liberals, nationalists and, on the far Right, Roger Eatwell and Neal OSullivan divide the Right into five types, reactionary, moderate, radical, extreme, and new. Chip Berlet argues that each of these styles of thought are responses to the left, including liberalism and socialism, the reactionary right looks toward the past and is aristocratic, religious and authoritarian. Often the moderate right promotes nationalism and social welfare policies, radical right is a term developed after World War II to describe groups and ideologies such as McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, Thatcherism, and the Republikaner Party. Eatwell stresses that use has major typological problems and that the term has also been applied to clearly democratic developments. The radical right includes right-wing populism and various other subtypes, Eatwell argues that the extreme right has four traits, 1) anti-democracy, 2) nationalism, 3) racism, and 4) the strong state. The New Right consists of the conservatives, who stress small government, free markets. Other authors make a distinction between the centre-right and the far right, parties of the centre-right generally support liberal democracy, capitalism, the market economy, private property rights, and a limited welfare state. They support conservatism and economic liberalism, and oppose socialism and communism, typical examples of leaders to whom the far right label is often applied are Francisco Franco in Spain and Augusto Pinochet in Chile

11.
Far-right politics
–
Far-right politics are right-wing politics further on the right of the left-right spectrum than the standard political right. Far-right politics often involve a focus on tradition, real or imagined, as opposed to policies, right-wing populism, a political ideology often combines laissez-faire, nationalism, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism is often described as far-right. Right-wing populism often involves appeals to common man and opposition to immigration, far-right politics include but are not limited to aspects of authoritarianism, anti-communism, and nativism. Claims that superior people should proportionally have greater rights than people are sometimes associated with the far right. The far right has historically favoured an elitist society based on its belief in the legitimacy of the rule of a supposed superior minority over the inferior masses. However, right-wing populist ideologies which are described by commentators as far-right often use appeals to the common man as opposed to the appeals of the elites. Far-right politics sometimes involves anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are deemed inferior, hence, far right politics is associated with Othering. According to Christina Liang, this field is especially peculiar about its terminology. Each label carries with it a specific understanding of family of political parties as well as a particular set of assumptions regarding their origins. In an extensive survey of the literature, academic Cas Mudde found 26 definitions of right-wing extremism that contained 57 different ideological features, there is also debate about how appropriate the labels fascist or neo-Fascist are. Mudde lists nativism, authoritarianism, and populism as core elements of populist radical right political parties, in the United States, the term hard right and Alt-right have been used to describe groups such as the Tea Party movement and the Patriot movement. The term has also used to describe ideologies such as Paleoconservatism, Dominion Theology. The German political scientist Klaus von Beyme describes three phases in the development of far-right parties in Western Europe after World War II. From 1945 to the mid-1950s, far-right parties were marginalised, and their ideologies were discredited due to the recent existence and defeat of Nazism. Thus in the immediately following World War II, the main objective of far-right parties was survival. From the mid-1950s to the 1970s, the so-called populist protest phase emerged with sporadic electoral success, the most common demand-side theories are the social breakdown thesis, the relative deprivation thesis, the modernisation losers thesis and the ethnic competition thesis. The rise of political parties has also been viewed as a rejection of post-materialist values on the part of some voters. This theory which is known as the reverse post-material thesis blames both left-wing and progressive parties for embracing a post-material agenda that alienates traditional working class voters, another study argues that individuals who join far-right parties determine whether those parties develop into major political players or whether they remain marginalized

12.
House of the People (Afghanistan)
–
The House of the People or Wolesi Jirga, abbreviated WJ, is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the House of Elders. The House of the People is the chamber that bears the burden of lawmaking in the country. It consists of 249 delegates directly elected by single non-transferable vote, members are elected by district and serve for five years. The constitution guarantees at least 64 delegates to be female, kuchi nomads elect 10 representatives through a Single National Constituency. The House of the People has the responsibility for making and ratifying laws. The first elections in decades were held only in September 2005, four years after the fall of the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban regime, the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections were held on September 18,2010. Elections were last held on September 18,2010, originally, they were planned to be held in May 2010, but after the disputed previous presidential election, elections were postponed. There were more than 2,500 candidates, some members of the Wolesi Jirgas 2005 election were, National Assembly of Afghanistan House of Elders Politics of Afghanistan List of legislatures by country Website of the Wolesi Jirga

13.
Council of Representatives of Bahrain
–
The Council of Representatives, sometimes translated as the Chamber of Deputies, is the name given to the lower house of the Bahraini National Assembly, the main legislative body of Bahrain. The body was created by the 2002 Constitution of Bahrain, the Council comprises forty members elected by universal suffrage. The forty seats of the Council of Representatives together with the forty royally-appointed seats of the Consultative Council form the Bahraini National Assembly, the current chairman of the Council is Khalifa Al Dhahrani. The last elections for the Council were in October 2010, in March 2012 the Council of Representatives of Bahrain voted to reject a Royal Decree issued by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for the first time since the Council’s establishment in 2002. The royal decree wanted to increase the share from 20 per cent to 50 per cent in the revenues of Tamkeen. This was rejected by MPs from many parties, who refused to allow the government access to these funds

14.
People's Representative Council
–
Together with the Regional Representative Council, a second chamber with limited powers, it makes up a legislative body, the Peoples Consultative Assembly. Currently there are 560 members, following the 2009 elections, all elected, the house has been the subject of frequent public criticism due to perceived high level of fraud and corruption. It met for the first time in 1918, ten of its nineteen members elected by local councils were Indonesians, as were five of the nineteen appointed members. However, it had only advisory powers, although the governor-general had to consult it on financial matters, the body grew in size to 60 members, half of who were elected by a total of 2,228 people. In 1925, the Volksraad gained some legislative powers and it had to agree to the budget and internal legislation, and could sponsor laws of its own. However, it had no power to remove the governor general and it was replaced by a council made up of heads of departments. The Japanese invaded Indonesia in 1942 and this body drew up a constitution for an independent Indonesia over several weeks of meetings. At a session of the Committee on 1 June 1945, Sukarno laid down the principles of Pancasila by which an Indonesia would be governed, on 7 August, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence or PPKI was established. Sukarno was chairman, and Hatta vice-chairman, the two proclaimed the Independence of Indonesia on 17 August. The PPKI also named Sukarno as president and Hatta vice-president, the Central Indonesian National Committee or KNIP was a body appointed to assist the president of the newly independent Indonesia, Sukarno, on 29 August 1945. The day-to-day tasks of the KNIP would be carried out by a Working Committee, during the War of Independence, the entire KNIP was unable to meet regularly. Two months later, the made up of heads of departments that the Dutch had set up to replace the pre-war Volksraad officially became the Provisional Federal Government. This body invited heads of the making up the United States of Indonesia to send delegates to the Federal Conference in Bandung in May 1948. That month, leaders of states and other areas joined together to establish the Federal Consultative Assembly to represent the federal regions, initially Peoples Representative Council had 50 representatives from the Republic of Indonesia and 100 from the 15 component parts of the RIS. The plan was for elections within a year, the KNIP met for the last time on 15 December 1949 to agree to the Republic of Indonesia joining the RIS. On 17 August 1950, the RIS was formally dissolved and the unitary Republic of Indonesia came into being, the provisional Peoples Representative Council met for the first time on 16 August 1950. Of the 236 members, only 204 took their oaths of office on 20 August, and only 170 voted in the election of the speaker, Masyumi was the largest parliamentary party with 49 seats. The PNI had 36 seats and no party had more than 17

15.
Council of Representatives of Iraq
–
The Council of Representatives of Iraq is the unicameral legislature of Iraq. It is currently composed of 328 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the Green Zone, an elected Iraqi parliament first formed following the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1925. The 1925 constitution called for a parliament whose lower house. The upper house, the Senate was appointed by the king, ten elections took place between 1925 and the coup of 1958. On January 17,1953 elections for the Chamber of Deputies took place, following controversy over the implementation of the so-called Baghdad Pact, Prime Minister Nuri Pasha as-Said called elections the following year, in early 1954. As-Said dissolved the assembly shortly thereafter and began to rule by decree, the second 1954 election was very corrupt, with as-Saids political enemies banned from running, and widespread voter coercion. The assembly was suspended yet again, and in 1958 a military coup deposed as-Said and the monarchy, the 1970 constitution created a republic with an elected National Assembly. However, elections for the Assembly did not take place until June 1980, under Iraqs new military president, several more elections took place between 1989 and 2003. The new Assembly was largely a figurehead that would occasionally rubber stamp the presidents decrees, elections for its members were not considered free and fair by the international community. Only members of Husseins own Baath Party were ever elected, in 2003, Saddam Hussein was forcibly removed from power by the United States of America, the United Kingdom and their allies during the Iraq War. This Assembly would draft a permanent constitution which would then be submitted to approval by the Iraqi people in a general referendum, elections for this transitional National Assembly took place on January 30,2005. The United Iraqi Alliance Party won the plurality of seats with 48% of the popular vote resulting in 140 seats, eighty-five members of the assembly were women. Talks between the UIA and other parties to form a coalition government began soon after the election, the assembly had its first meeting on March 16,2005. The Assembly elected Jalal Talabani to head the Presidency Council on April 6, under the permanent constitution approved on October 15,2005, legislative authority is vested in two bodies, the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. The Council of Representatives consists of 325 members elected for four years, the Council passes federal laws, oversees the executive, ratifies treaties, and approves nominations of specified officials. It elects the president of the republic, who selects a prime minister from the majority coalition in the Council, elections for the Council of Representatives were held on December 15,2005. The Council first met on March 16,2006, exactly one year after the first meeting of the transitional assembly. The Council of Representatives of Iraq has the name in Arabic as the lower legislative houses of Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, and Yemen

16.
Parliament of Lebanon
–
The Parliament of Lebanon is the national parliament of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year terms in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanons diverse Christian and its major functions are to elect the President of the republic, to approve the government, and to approve laws and expenditure. On 15 May 2013, the Parliament extended its mandate for 17 months, and, on 5 November 2014, the Parliament enacted another extension, thus keeping its mandate for an additional 31 months, until 20 June 2017. The Parliament building was designed by Mardiros Altounian, who was also the architect of the clock tower. The building was completed in 1934 during the French Mandate period, advised to build in the spirit of Lebanese tradition, the architect visited the emirs’ palaces in the Shouf Mountains. He also drew inspiration from the Oriental styles developed in Paris, Istanbul, the building combines Beaux-Arts design with elements taken from local architectural tradition, including twin and triple arch windows. It represented a technical achievement at that time. A unique feature of the Lebanese system is the principle of confessional distribution, Christian politicians were unwilling to abolish or alter the system, however, and it was one of the factors in the 1975–1990 civil war. The Taif Agreement of 1989, which ended the war, reapportioned the Parliament to provide for equal representation of Christians and Muslims. The changes stipulated by the Taif Agreement are set out in the table below*, other parties are personality-based, often comprising followers of a present or past political leader or warlord. Few parties are based, in practice, on any particular ideology, no single party has ever won more than 12.5 percent of the total number of seats in the Parliament, and until 2005 no coalition ever won more than a third of the total. The general election held in 2005, however, resulted in a majority being won by the alliance led by Saad Hariri. The Speaker of the Parliament, who by custom must be a Shia Muslim, is now elected to a four-year term, prior to the Taif Agreement, he was elected to a two-year term. He forms part of a troika together with the President and the Prime Minister, the privileges of the Speaker are unusually powerful, relative to other democratic systems. The current speaker is the leader of the Amal Party, Nabih Berri, the system of multi-member constituencies has been criticized over the years by many politicians, who claim that it is easy for the government to gerrymander the boundaries. The same thing happens in the South, meaning that although several seats within the constituency are allocated to Christians, many opposition politicians, mostly Christians, have claimed that the constituency boundaries were extensively gerrymandered in the elections of 1992,1996,2000,2005 and 2009. There have also been calls for the creation of a single, country-wide constituency

17.
National Assembly (Mauritania)
–
The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Mauritania. The legislature has 146 members, elected for terms in single-seat constituencies. From 1961 until 1978, the legal party in the country was the Mauritanian Peoples Party. In the 1990s, a multiparty system was introduced in Mauritania, however, the Democratic and Social Republican Party dominated the parliament until a coup in 2005. The first truly democratic elections were held in 2006, on April 27,2007 Messaoud Ould Boulkheir was elected speaker of the National Assembly, becoming the first black Haratine to hold the position

18.
Palestinian Legislative Council
–
The Palestinian Legislative Council was the parliament of the Palestinian inhabitants of the Palestinian territories. It was a body with 132 members, elected from 16 electoral districts of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank. The PLC was inaugurated for the first time on 7 March 1996, the PLC had limited power and responsibilities, restricted to civil matters and internal security in Area A of the West Bank and in Gaza. With the possible reconciliation of Hamas and Fatah, it would be re-assembled to become the Parliament of the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Legislative Council passed a law in June 2005, increasing the number of members from 88 to 132. It stipulated that half be elected under a system of proportional representation, the last parliamentary elections took place on 25 January 2006. The next election was intended to take place sometime in 2014 but has been delayed because of disagreements between Hamas and Fatah, the emblem used for the Palestinian Legislative Council is referred to as the Eagle of Saladin. Every single detail regarding the elections was led down in Annex II, Oslo II determines that only residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories may vote or be elected. The power and responsibilities of the PLC are limited to civil matters and internal security and public order, the PLC is excluded from the negotiations process with Israel. The PLC was inaugurated for the first time on 7 March 1996, the Council was predestined to replace the Arafat/Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, which was established as a temporary organ, pending the inauguration of the Council. The PA, however, never transferred its power, while the PLC is elected by the Palestinians residing in the Palestinian territories, it is not the parliament of the State of Palestine. Accordingly, the Palestinian Authority is not the government of the State of Palestine, on the contrary, PLO is recognized by the United Nations as the Government of the State of Palestine. The PLO has its own parliament, the Palestinian National Council, accordingly, the Executive Committee, formally elected by the PNC, is the official government of the State of Palestine on behalf of the PLO. Pursuant to the PAs 1995 Elections Law No,13, the 132 PLC members would automatically become members of the PNC. This was revoked, however, by the 2005 Elections Law No,9, which does not mention the PNC at all. 2, issued in a decree from President Abbas, re-instated the determination, as this PA legislation was neither enacted by the PLO or the PNC, their legal validity are questioned in a PLO document. While both PLC and PNC are virtually defunct, the functions of both parliaments are performed by the PLOs Central Council and they had to obtain a permit from the Israeli authorities for every single travel, valid for very short periods and sometimes refused. In 2001, the European Parliament noticed in a resolution that The Palestinian Legislative Council is more often than not hindered from attending the sessions Isolation from the outer world, Israel prevents official contacts with the outer world. Even the visit of members of the European Parliament to Gaza were denied, Israeli interference with the composition of the PLC

19.
National Assembly of Sudan
–
The National Assembly is the lower house of the National Legislature of Sudan. The upper house is the Council of States, the current session was elected in 2015. The National Assembly consisted of 450 appointed members who represent the government, former rebels, the National Assembly, whose members were appointed in mid-2005 replaced the latest elected parliament. All members of the National Legislature serve six-year terms, hassan Abdallah al-Turabi was the previous speaker from 1996 until he stripped of the post and placed under arrest after a falling out with President Omar al-Bashir. Mr. Atem Garang of the SPLM is Deputy Speaker, composition of the National Assembly following the 2010 election and the independence of South Sudan

20.
House of Representatives (Yemen)
–
The House of Representatives is the legislature of Yemen. The Assembly of Representatives has 301 members, elected for a term in single-seat constituencies. The last election took place in 2003, the election was set for 27 April 2009, but president Saleh postponed them by two years on 24 February 2009. However, they did not take place on 27 April 2011 either and they were planned to be alongside the next presidential election. In February 2015, the Houthis briefly dissolved parliament before reportedly agreeing to reinstate the 301-member assembly in UN-brokered talks, under the agreement, it will be augmented by a peoples transitional council serving as the upper house. The last parliamentary election in Yemen took place in 2003, List of Speakers of the Assembly of Representatives of Yemen Politics of Yemen List of legislatures by country

21.
Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested

22.
Sunni
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. Political tensions between Sunnis and Shias continued with varying intensity throughout Islamic history and they have been exacerbated in recent times by ethnic conflicts, as of 2009, Sunni Muslims constituted 87–90% of the worlds Muslim population. Sunni Islam is the worlds largest religious denomination, followed by Catholicism and its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah or ahl as-sunnah for short. In English, its doctrines and practices are sometimes called Sunnism, while adherents are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites, Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as orthodox Islam. The Quran, together with hadith and binding juristic consensus form the basis of all traditional jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, sunnī, also commonly referred to as Sunnīism, is a term derived from sunnah meaning habit, usual practice, custom, tradition. The Muslim use of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of the prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, this branch of Islam is referred to as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, the people of the sunnah and the community, which is commonly shortened to ahl as-sunnah. One common mistake is to assume that Sunni Islam represents a normative Islam that emerged during the period after Muhammads death, and that Sufism and Shiism developed out of Sunni Islam. This perception is due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works. Both Sunnism and Shiaism are the end products of centuries of competition between ideologies. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and doctrines, the first four caliphs are known among Sunnis as the Rashidun or Rightly-Guided Ones. Sunni recognition includes the aforementioned Abu Bakr as the first, Umar who established the Islamic calendar as the second, Uthman as the third, Sunnis believe that the companions of Muhammad were the best of Muslims. Support for this view is found in the Quran, according to Sunnis. Sunnis also believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran, furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are considered by Sunnis to be a second source of knowledge of the Muslim faith. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2010 and released January 2011 found that there are 1.62 billion Muslims around the world, Islam does not have a formal hierarchy or clergy. Leaders are informal, and gain influence through study to become a scholar of Islamic law, according to the Islamic Center of Columbia, South Carolina, anyone with the intelligence and the will can become an Islamic scholar. During Midday Mosque services on Fridays, the congregation will choose a person to lead the service

23.
Islamist
–
Islamism is a concept whose meaning has been debated in both public and academic contexts. It is commonly used interchangeably with the terms political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism and these movements have arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence, redefining politics and even borders according to Robin Wright. Some authors hold the term Islamic activism to be synonymous and preferable to Islamism, Central and prominent figures of modern Islamism include Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abul Ala Maududi, and Ruhollah Khomeini. Some Islamist thinkers emphasize peaceful political processes, whereas Sayyid Qutb in particular called for violence, however, Qutb, unlike modern extremists, denounced the killing of innocents. Following the Arab Spring, some Islamist currents became heavily involved in politics, while others spawned the most aggressive and ambitious Islamist militia to date. A theocratic ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society by law, subsequently, clarified to be, the desire to impose any given interpretation of Islam on society. A movement so broad and flexible it reaches out to everything to everyone in Islam, making it unsustainable. and at the extremes, a violent vehicle for rejectionists and radicals. All who seek to Islamize their environment, whether in relation to their lives in society, their circumstances, or the workplace. Moderate and reformist Islamists who accept and work within the process include parties like the Tunisian Ennahda Movement. Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan is basically a socio-political and democratic Vanguard party but has gained political influence through military coup détats in the past. The Islamist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine participate in the democratic, following the Arab Spring, Roy has described Islamism as increasingly interdependent with democracy in much of the Arab Muslim world, such that neither can now survive without the other. While Islamist political culture itself may not be democratic, Islamists need democratic elections to maintain their legitimacy, at the same time, their popularity is such that no government can call itself democratic that excludes mainstream Islamist groups. The term, which denoted the religion of Islam, first appeared in English as Islamismus in 1696. The term appears in the U. S. Supreme Court decision in In Re Ross, the term Islamism acquired its contemporary connotations in French academia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From French, it began to migrate to the English language in the mid-1980s, a 2003 article in Middle East Quarterly states, In summation, the term Islamism enjoyed its first run, lasting from Voltaire to the First World War, as a synonym for Islam. Enlightened scholars and writers generally preferred it to Mohammedanism, eventually both terms yielded to Islam, the Arabic name of the faith, and a word free of either pejorative or comparative associations. To all intents and purposes, Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism have become synonyms in contemporary American usage, the AP Stylebook entry for Islamist now reads as follows, An advocate or supporter of a political movement that favors reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. Do not use as a synonym for Islamic fighters, militants, extremists or radicals, where possible, be specific and use the name of militant affiliations, al-Qaida-linked, Hezbollah, Taliban, etc

24.
Islamic studies
–
Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam and Islamic culture. Islamic studies can be seen under at least two perspectives, From a secular or neutral point of view, Islamic studies do academic research on Islam and Islamic culture independent of faith. In this respect, Islamic studies neither engage in shaping Muslim faith by making Islamic theology, from a Muslim point of view, Islamic studies also do academic research on Islam and Islamic culture, but from a faithful perspective. Historically, both perspectives had been separated by the separation of the Western and Islamic worlds. They differed in their understanding of academia and were organized either in universities or madrasas, scholars of Islamic studies are called by their special field of study, as e. g. historian, sociologist, or political scientist, or in general a scholar of Islamic studies. The professional title Islamicist is dated, scholars of Islamic studies from a faithful point of view can be historians etc. too, yet they also can be called Muslim scholar, teacher of religion, cleric, or Ulama. In a Muslim context, Islamic studies is the term for the Islamic sciences. Specialists in the discipline apply methods adapted from several fields, ranging from Biblical studies and classical philology to modern history, legal history. Scholars in the field of academic Islamic studies are often referred to as Islamicists, in fact, some of the more traditional Western universities still confer degrees in Arabic and Islamic studies under the primary title of Oriental studies. This is the case, for example, at the University of Oxford, the first attempt to understand Islam as a topic of modern scholarship was within the context of 19th-century Christian European Oriental studies. Some orientalists praised the tolerance of Islamic countries in contrast with the Christian West. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, philological and historical approaches were predominant, leading in the field were German researchers like Theodore Nöldeke s study on the history of the Quran, or Ignaz Goldziher s work on the prophetic tradition. Western orientalists and Muslim scholars alike preferred to interpret the history of Islam in a conservative way and they did not question the traditional account of the early time of Islam, of Muhammad and how the Quran was written. To understand the history of Islam provides the basis to understand all aspects of Islam. Themes of special interest are, Historiography of early Islam History of the Quran Historicity of Muhammad Early Muslim conquests Kalam is one of the sciences of Islam. In Arabic, the word means discussion and refers to the Islamic tradition of seeking theological principles through dialectic, a scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim. Islamic eschatology Sufism is a tradition of Islam based on the pursuit of spiritual truth as it is gradually revealed to the heart. It might also be referred to as Islamic mysticism, while other branches of Islam generally focus on exoteric aspects of religion, Sufism is mainly focused on the direct perception of truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love

25.
Hassan al-Banna
–
Al-Bannas writings marked a watershed in Islamic intellectual history by presenting a modern ideology based on Islam. Al-Banna considered Islam to be a system of life, with the Quran as the only acceptable constitution. He called for Islamization of the state, the economy, al-Bannas ideology involved criticism of Western materialism, British imperialism, and the traditionalism of Egyptian ulema. He appealed to Egyptian and pan-Arab patriotism but rejected Arab nationalism, the Muslim Brotherhood advocated gradualist moral reform and had no plans for violent takeover of power. Jihad of the spirit was a key notion in their program, under al-Bannas leadership, the organization embarked on a wide-ranging campaign of social engagement with a particular emphasis on public health improvements. He allowed formation of a military wing which took part in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al-Banna argued that the state should enforce Islamic public morality through censorship and application of corporal punishments. Nonetheless, his thought was open to Western ideas and some of his writings quote European authors instead of Islamic sources, al-Banna was assassinated by Egyptian secret police in 1949. His son-in-law Said Ramadan emerged as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s. Hassan al-Banna was born on 14 October 1906 in Mahmudiyya, a rural Nile Delta town located northwest of Cairo in Beheira Governorate. His father, Sheikh Ahmad Abd al-Rahman al-Banna al-Saati, was a Hanbali imam, muezzin, and mosque teacher, Sheikh Ahmad was also known for his work as a Hanbali scholar, particularly his classifications of the traditions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani. These classifications became known as musnad al-fath al-rabbani, through this work, Sheikh Ahmad forged connections with Islamic scholars that proved useful when his son moved to Cairo in 1932. In addition to his exposure to Hanbali Puritanism, Hassan al-Banna was inspired by Rashid Ridas magazine. He was also influenced by Sufism as a youth in Mahmudiyya. He attended weekly Hadra and was a member of the al-Hassafiyya Sufi order, although al-Banna was only thirteen years old during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, it was the event that first exposed him to Egyptian nationalist politics. In his personal accounts, al-Banna connected himself with the activism of the time. In spite of his age, al-Banna participated in demonstrations in Damanhur, self-published political pamphlets. However, during the 1920s economic crisis, the family had trouble sustaining the upkeep of their property, in Mahmudiyya, al-Banna studied in the village mosque with Sheikh Zahran

26.
Arab world
–
The Arab world, also known as the Arab nation or the Arab states, consists of the 22 Arabic-speaking countries of the Arab League. The contemporary Arab world has a population of around 422 million inhabitants. In the Middle Ages, the Arab world was synonymous with the historic Arab empires and caliphates, Arab nationalism arose in the second half of the 19th century along with other nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire. The Arab League was formed in 1945 to represent the interests of Arab people and especially to pursue the political unification of the Arab countries, the linguistic and political denotation inherent in the term Arab is generally dominant over genealogical considerations. In Arab states, Modern Standard Arabic is the language used by the government. The language of a nation is called Darija, which means everyday/colloquial language. Although no globally accepted definition of the Arab world exists, all countries that are members of the Arab League are generally acknowledged as being part of the Arab world. This standard territorial definition is seen to be inappropriate or problematic. These parameters may be applied to the states and territories of the Arab League, typical parameters that may be applied include, whether Arabic is widely spoken, whether Arabic is an official or national language, or whether an Arabic cognate language is widely spoken. While Arabic dialects are spoken in a number of Arab League states, several states have declared Arabic to be an official or national language, although Arabic is today not as widely spoken there. As members of the Arab League, however, they are considered part of the Arab world under the territorial definition. Somalia has two official languages today, Arabic and Somali, both of which belong to the larger Afro-Asiatic language family, although Arabic is widely spoken by many people in the north, Somali is the most widely used language, and contains many Arabic loan words. Similarly, Djibouti has two languages, Arabic and French. It also has several formally recognized national languages, besides Somali, many people speak Afar, the majority of the population speaks Somali and Afar, although Arabic is also widely used for trade and other activities. Comoros has three languages, Arabic, Comorian and French. Comorian is the most widely spoken language, with Arabic having a religious significance, Israel is not part of the Arab world. By some definitions, Arab citizens of Israel may concurrently be considered a constituent part of the Arab world, Iran has about 1.5 million Arabic speakers. Iranian Arabs are mainly found in Ahvaz, a region in the Khuzestan Province, others inhabit the Bushehr Qushasha and Hipi-Lipi Hormozgan provinces

27.
Hamas
–
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization. It has a service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Hamass military wing objected to the truce offer, analysts have said that it seems clear that Hamas knows that many of its conditions for the truce could never be met. The attacks on civilians have been condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity by human rights such as Human Rights Watch. In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a plurality in the Palestinian Parliament, Hamas rejected those changes, which led to the Quartet suspending its foreign assistance program and Israel imposing economic sanctions on the Hamas-led administration. In March 2007, a unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was briefly formed. Israel and Egypt then imposed a blockade of the Gaza Strip. In 2011, Hamas and Fatah announced an agreement that provides for creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government. Progress stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a unity government. It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, China, an EU court found the EUs earlier designation flawed, but its decision has been appealed by the European Council. It is a point of debate in political and academic circles over whether or not to classify Hamas as a terrorist group, Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase حركة المقاومة الاسلامية or Harakat al-Muqāwama al-Islāmiyya, meaning Islamic Resistance Movement. The Arabic word hamas means courage or zeal, the Hamas covenant interprets its name to mean strength and bravery. Hamas, as its name implies, aims to liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation by resisting it, Hamas inherited from its predecessor a tripartite structure that consisted in the provision of social services, of religious training and military operations under a Shura Council. Traditionally it had four distinct functions, a social welfare division, a military division for procuring weapons and undertaking operations, a security service. The exact nature of the organization is unclear, secrecy being maintained for fear of Israeli assassinations, formally, Hamas maintains the wings are separate and independent. Matthew Levitt maintains this is a public myth, davis argues that they are both separate and combined for reasons of internal and external political necessity. Communication between the political and military wings of Hamas is difficult, owing to the thoroughness of Israeli intelligence surveillance, after the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi the occasional political direction of the militant wing diminished, with field commanders given discretional autonomy on operations. The governing body is the Majlis al-Shura, the principle behind the Council is based on the Quranic concept of consultation and popular assembly, which Hamas leaders argue provides for democracy within an Islamic framework

28.
Egyptian revolution of 2011
–
The Egyptian revolution of 2011, locally known as the January 25 Revolution, began on 25 January 2011 and took place across all of Egypt. The date was set by various groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian police day as a statement against increasing police brutality during the last few years of Mubaraks presidency. It consisted of demonstrations, marches, occupations of plazas, non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience, millions of protesters from a range of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The revolution started by calls for protests from online youth groups, initially these included liberal, anti-capitalist, nationalist, and feminist elements, but they finally included Islamist elements as well. Violent clashes between security forces and protesters resulted in at least 846 people killed and over 6,000 injured, protesters retaliated by burning over 90 police stations across the country. The protests took place in Cairo, Alexandria and all cities across the nation. The protesters primary demands were the end of the Mubarak regime and emergency law, freedom, justice, a responsive non-military government, strikes by labour unions added to the pressure on government officials. During the uprising, the capital Cairo was described as a war zone, protesters defied a government-imposed curfew, which was impossible to enforce by the police and military. Egypts Central Security Forces, loyal to Mubarak, were replaced by military troops. In the chaos, there was some looting by gangs which was instigated by plainclothes police officers, in response, watch groups were organized by civilians to protect neighbourhoods. International reaction has varied, with most Western nations condoning peaceful protests but concerned about the stability of Egypt, the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions have influenced demonstrations in other Arab countries, including Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Libya. Mubarak dissolved his government, appointing former head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Omar Suleiman vice-president in an attempt to quell dissent, Mubarak asked aviation minister and former chief of Egypts air force Ahmed Shafik to form a new government. Mohamed ElBaradei became an opposition figure, with all major opposition groups supporting his role as negotiator for a transitional unity government. In response to mounting pressure, Mubarak in another attempt to contain the crisis announced he did not intend to seek re-election in September. On 11 February 2011 Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak would resign as president, the previous cabinet, including Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, would serve as a caretaker government until a new one was formed. On 24 May 2011, Mubarak was ordered to trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protesters and, if convicted. On 2 June 2012 Mubarak was found guilty of complicity in the murder of protesters and sentenced to imprisonment, but the sentence was overturned on appeal. A number of protesters, upset that others tried with Mubarak were acquitted, Mubarak was eventually cleared of all charges on 29 November 2014, although Egypts prosecutor general announced he would appeal the verdict

29.
Bahrain
–
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam, following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, in the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Formerly a state, Bahrain was declared a Kingdom in 2002, in 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. Bahrain had the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, since the late 20th century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors. Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the countrys capital, Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and was recognised by the World Bank as a high income economy. In Arabic, Bahrayn is the form of bahr, so al-Bahrayn means the two seas, although which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal— but rather to all of Eastern Arabia. Today, Bahrains two seas are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the water as noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternate theory with regard to Bahrains toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, another supposition by al-Jawahari suggests that the more formal name Bahri would have been misunderstood and so was opted against. Until the late Middle Ages, Bahrain referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, the region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayns Bahrayn Province, the exact date at which the term Bahrain began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as Bahrain for a millennium, the island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s. Bahrain was home to the Dilmun civilization, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia, Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians. From the 6th to 3rd century BC, Bahrain was part of the Persian Empire ruled by the Achaemenian dynasty, by about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman

30.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

31.
Syria
–
Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam

32.
Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago

33.
United Arab Emirates
–
In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost

34.
Quran
–
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation

35.
Sunnah
–
Sunnah is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as various reports about Muhammads companions. The Quran and the Sunnah make up the two sources of Islamic theology and law. The Sunnah is also defined as a path, a way, in the pre-Islamic period, the word sunnah was used with the meaning manner of acting, whether good or bad. During the early Islamic period, the term came to refer to any good precedent set by people of the past, the sunnah of Muhammad includes his specific words, habits, practices, and silent approvals. Instituting these practices was, as the Quran states, a part of Muhammads responsibility as a messenger of God, recording the sunnah was an Arabian tradition and, once people converted to Islam, they brought this custom to their religion. The word Sunnah is also used to refer to religious duties that are optional, Sunnah is an Arabic word that means habit or usual practice. Sunni Muslims are also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jamāah or Ahl as-Sunnah for short, some early Sunnî Muslim scholars reportedly used the term the Sunnah narrowly to refer to Sunnî Doctrine as opposed to the creeds of Shia and other non-Sunni sects. According to Fazlur Rhaman, Sunnah is a behavior concept and this concept could be applied on mental and physical acts, in other words, sunnah counted as a law of behavior. This behavior belongs to conscious agents who can possess their acts, besides, sunnah counted as normative moral law. Sunnah also means the practice which gains the status of normative. A similar in that We have sent among you a Messenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in new knowledge. Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, the teachings of wisdom have been declared to be a function of Muhammad along with the teachings of the scripture. Several Quranic verses mention wisdom coupled with scripture or the book, surah 4, ayah 113 states, For Allah hath sent down to thee the Book and wisdom and taught thee what thou Knewest not, And great is the Grace of Allah unto thee. Surah 2, ayah 231. but remember Allahs grace upon you, surah 33, ayah 34, And bear in mind which is recited in your houses of the revelations of God and of wisdom. Therefore, along with divine revelation the sunnah was directly taught by God, modern Sunni scholars are beginning to examine both the sira and the hadith in order to justify modifications to jurisprudence. The sunnah, in one form or another, would retain its role in providing a moral example. For Muslims the imitation of Muhammad helps one to know and be loved by God, and We have also sent down unto you the reminder and the advice, that you may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them, and that they may give thought. And We have not sent down the Book to you, except that you may explain clearly unto them those things in which they differ, and a guidance and a mercy for a folk who believe

36.
Pan-Islamism
–
Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic state – often a Caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. The model pan-Islamism aims for is the years of Islam – the reign of Muhammad. In the modern era, Pan-Islamism was championed by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani who sought unity among Muslims to resist colonial occupation of Muslim lands. Afghani feared that nationalism would divide the Muslim world and believed that Muslim unity was more important than ethnic identity. ”In a review of the articles of his Paris-base newspaper there was nothing favoring political democracy or parliamentarianism. While Afghanis interest in Islamic law and theology was scant, later Pan-Islamism in the world was strongly associated with Islamism. Leading Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb, Abul Ala Maududi, and Ayatollah Khomeini all stressed their belief that a return to traditional Sharia law would make Islam united, in the period of decolonialism following World War II, Arab nationalism overshadowed Islamism which denounced nationalism as un-Islamic. In the Arab world secular pan-Arab parties – Baath and Nasserist parties – had offshoots in almost every Arab country, Islamists suffered severe repression, its major thinker Sayyid Qutb, was imprisoned, underwent torture and was later executed. Following the defeat of Arab armies in the Six-Day War, Islamism, Pan-Islamic Sunni Muslims such as Maududi and the Muslim Brotherhood, embraced the creation of a new Caliphate, at least as a long-term project. Shia leader Ruhollah Khomeini also embraced a united Islamist supra-state but saw it led by a scholar of fiqh. These events galvanised Islamists the world over and heightened their popularity with the Muslim public, throughout the Middle-East, and in particular Egypt, the various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood have significantly challenged the secular nationalist or monarchical Muslim governments. In Pakistan the Jamaat-e-Islami enjoyed popular support especially since the formation of the MMA, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hizb-ut-Tahrir has emerged as a Pan-Islamist force in Central Asia and in the last five years has developed some support from the Arab world. Pan-Islamism, Indian Muslims, the Ottomans and Britain, Brill Academic Publishers,1997, commonwealth of Muslim States, a plea for Pan-Islamism, al-Ahibba,1972. Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics, A Study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918-1924, Brill Academic Publishers,1999, the Politics of Pan-Islam, Ideology and Organization. Londonistan, How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within, Pan-Islamism in Oxford Islamic Studies Online al-Afghanis Vision of a Pan-Islamic Civilization al-Afghani Bibliography The Manchester Document

37.
Social movement
–
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizations which focus on political or social issues. In other words, they carry out, resist, or undo a social change, modern Western social movements became possible through education and increased mobility of labor due to the industrialization and urbanization of 19th century societies. However, others point out many of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in Kenya. Either way, social movements have been and continued to be connected with democratic political systems. Occasionally, social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, over the past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent. Modern movements often utilize technology and the internet to people globally. Adapting to communication trends is a theme among successful movements. Research is beginning to explore how advocacy organizations linked to social movements in the U. S. and Canada use social media to facilitate civic engagement, the systematic literature review of Buettner & Buettner analyzed the role of Twitter during a wide range of social movements. Political science and sociology have developed a variety of theories and empirical research on social movements, there is no single consensus definition of a social movement. For Tilly, social movements are a vehicle for ordinary peoples participation in public politics. Sidney Tarrow defines a social movement as collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interactions with elites, opponents and he specifically distinguishes social movements from political parties and advocacy groups. The first mass social movement catalyzed around the political figure. Charged with seditious libel, Wilkes was arrested after the issue of a general warrant, as a result of this episode, Wilkes became a figurehead to the growing movement for popular sovereignty among the middle classes - people began chanting, Wilkes and Liberty in the streets. After a later period of exile, brought about by further charges of libel and obscenity, Wilkes stood for the Parliamentary seat at Middlesex, where most of his support was located. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the Kings Bench Prison on 10 May 1768 and this was the first ever sustained social movement, -it involved public meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets on an unprecedented scale and the mass petition march. The force and influence of social movement on the streets of London compelled the authorities to concede to the movements demands. Wilkes was returned to Parliament, general warrants were declared as unconstitutional, the Association had the support of leading Calvinist religious figures, including Rowland Hill, Erasmus Middleton, and John Rippon

38.
Arab Spring
–
Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Bahrain, Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests occurred in Djibouti, Mauritania, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, a major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam. These attacks were answered with violence from protestors in some cases, large-scale conflicts resulted—the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi insurgency and the following civil war, the Egyptian Crisis and coup, the Libyan Crisis, and the Crisis in Yemen. A power struggle continued after the response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power went up for grabs across the Arab world, ultimately it came down to a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states. Some have referred to the succeeding and still ongoing conflicts as the Arab Winter, as of July 2016, only the uprising in Tunisia resulted in a transition to constitutional democratic governance. The term Arab Spring is an allusion to the Revolutions of 1848, which is referred to as the Springtime of Nations. In the aftermath of the Iraq War it was used by commentators and bloggers who anticipated a major Arab movement towards democratization. The first specific use of the term Arab Spring as used to denote these events may have started with the American political journal Foreign Policy. Marc Lynch, referring to his article in Foreign Policy, writes Arab Spring—a term I may have unintentionally coined in a January 6,2011 article. Joseph Massad on Al Jazeera said the term was part of a US strategy of controlling aims and goals, due to the electoral success of Islamist parties following the protests in many Arab countries, the events have also come to be known as Islamist Spring or Islamist Winter. Other sources confirm the US governments support of the uprisings, funded largely by the National Endowment for Democracy, other analysts pointed to the fourth stage Toppling the Regimes of the Al Qaeda strategy for world domination, described in Fouad Husseins book published in 2005. Some protesters looked to the Turkish model as an ideal, other analysts blamed the rise in food prices on commodity traders and the conversion of crops to ethanol. Yet others have claimed that the context of high rates of unemployment, the influence of social media on political activism during the Arab Spring has, however, been much debated. Protests took place both in states with a high level of Internet usage and in states with one of the lowest Internet penetration. The use of media platforms more than doubled in Arab countries during the protests. As of 5 April 2011, the amount of Facebook users in the Arab world surpassed 27.7 million people, Facebook, Twitter and other major social media played a key role in the movement of Egyptian and Tunisian activists in particular. Nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a poll that they used Facebook to organize protests and this large population of young Egyptian men referred to themselves as the Facebook generation, exemplifying their escape from their non-modernized past

39.
Egyptian presidential election, 2012
–
A presidential election was held in Egypt in two rounds, the first on 23 and 24 May 2012 and the second on 16 and 17 June. Morsi, however, lasted little over a year as President before he was ousted in a coup in July 2013. The elections set the stage for the divisions that were to follow, along Islamist and secular lines, and those opposed to, Islamist candidates Morsi and Fotouh won roughly 42% of the vote, while the remaining secular candidates won 56% of the vote. Candidates Shafik and Moussa held positions under the Mubarak regime and won 35% of the vote, while Sabahi was a prominent dissident during the Sadat and Mubarak regimes. Following the second round, with a turnout of 52%, on 24 June 2012. Morsi won by a margin over Ahmed Shafik, the final prime minister under deposed President Hosni Mubarak. The commission said Morsi took 51. 7% of the vote versus 48. 3% for Shafik, Morsi was sworn in on 30 June 2012 and was later ousted in a coup on 3 July 2013. The rules for the election were released on 30 January 2012, candidates had to be born in Egypt to Egyptian parents, may not have held dual nationality and may not have been married to a foreigner. To be nominated, they required the support of 30 Members of Parliament or 30,000 voters, the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission was expected to release the list of candidates who fulfil the legal requirements and are eligible for the presidency on 26 April. Reasons for the disqualifications were not given, but the candidates were given 48 hours to appeal the decisions. Both Suleiman and El-Shaters campaigns stated they would file appeals, on 23 April, SCAF ratified the Corruption of Political Life Law, which was passed by the Peoples Assembly on 12 April. The law disqualified presidential hopefuls Ahmed Shafik and Omar Suleiman, on 25 April the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission accepted the appeal filed by Ahmed Shafik against its previous decision to exclude him from running for President. Therefore, a total of 13 candidates were standing in SPECs final list. The appeal also requested the new Parliamentary law be brought before the Supreme Constitutional Court to determine its constitutionality, on 16 May 2012, Mohammad Fawzi Issa announced his withdrawal from the race in support of Amr Moussa, leaving the final candidate count at 12. His name however was not removed from the paper as the official date of withdrawal had already passed. Ahmed Shafik officially launched his campaign on 2 November 2011. He was the last Prime Minister appointed by Hosni Mubarak after the beginning of the 2011 revolution in January and he resigned only three weeks after the deposition of the long-term president. Shafik claims to be on terms with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

40.
Mohamed Morsi
–
He was the first democratically elected head of state in the 5000 years of Egyptian history, in the election after the Egyptian revolution of 2011. These issues, along with complaints of prosecutions of journalists and attacks on nonviolent demonstrators, as part of a compromise, Morsi rescinded the decrees. In the referendum he held on the new constitution it was approved by two thirds of voters. On 30 June 2013, protests erupted across Egypt, which saw protesters calling for the presidents resignation, the military suspended the constitution and established a new administration now led by General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. The Muslim Brotherhood protested against the coup, but the pro-Morsi protests were crushed in the August 2013 Rabaa massacre in which at least 817 civilians were massacred. Opposition leader Elbaradei quit in protest of the massacre and his death sentence was overturned, so he will receive a retrial. However, Morsi is still currently imprisoned, Mohamed Morsi was born in the Sharqia Governorate, in northern Egypt, of modest provincial origin, in the village of El Adwah, north of Cairo, on 8 August 1951. His father was a farmer and his mother a housewife and he is the eldest of five brothers, and told journalists that he remembers being taken to school on the back of a donkey. In the late 1960s, he moved to Cairo to study at Cairo University and he fulfilled his military service in the Egyptian Army from 1975 to 1976, serving in the chemical warfare unit. He then resumed his studies at Cairo University and earned an MS in metallurgical engineering in 1978, Morsi then earned a government scholarship that enabled him to study in the United States. He received a PhD in materials science from the University of Southern California in 1982 with his dissertation High-Temperature Electrical Conductivity, while living in the United States, Morsi became an Asst. Prof. At the California State University, Northridge from 1982 to 1985, Morsi, an expert on precision metal surfaces, also worked for NASA in the early 1980s, helping to develop Space Shuttle engines. In 1985, Morsi quit his job at CSUN and returned to Egypt, becoming a professor at Zagazig University, Morsi was a lecturer at Zagazig Universitys engineering department until 2010. Morsi was first elected to parliament in 2000 and he served as a Member of Parliament from 2000 to 2005, officially as an independent candidate because the Brotherhood was technically barred from running candidates for office under Mubarak. While serving in this capacity in 2010, Morsi stated that the solution is nothing. Morsi condemned the September 11 attacks as horrific crime against innocent civilians, however, he accused the United States of using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and claimed that the US had not provided evidence that the attackers were Muslims. He also stated that the aircraft collision alone did not bring down the World Trade Center, such views are held by most Egyptians, including Egyptian liberals. His comments drew criticism in the United States, Morsi was arrested along with 24 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on 28 January 2011

41.
Islam
–
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion

42.
History of Islam
–
The history of Islam concerns the political, economic, social, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Despite concerns about reliability of sources, most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca. A century later, the Islamic empire extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus river in the east, polities such as those ruled by the Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, and Mamluks were among the most influential powers in the world. The Islamic civilization gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable astronomers, mathematicians, during the 19th and early 20th centuries most parts of the Muslim world fell under influence or direct control of European Great Powers. Their efforts to win independence and build modern nation states over the course of the last two centuries continue to reverberate to the present day, the following timeline can serve as a rough visual guide to the most important polities in the Islamic world prior to the First World War. It covers major historical centers of power and culture, including Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Levant, Egypt, Maghreb, al-Andalus, Transoxania, Hindustan, dates are approximate, consult particular articles for details. The study of the earliest periods in Islamic history is difficult by a lack of sources. For example, the most important historiographical source for the origins of Islam is the work of al-Tabari, while al-Tabari was an excellent historian by the standards of his time and place, use of his work as a source is problematic for two reasons. For one, his style of historical writing permitted liberal use of mythical, legendary, stereotyped, distorted, Second, al-Tabaris descriptions of the beginning of Islam post-date the events by a large amount of time, al-Tabari having died in 923 CE. Differing views about how to deal with the sources has led to the development of four different approaches to the history of early Islam. All four methods have some level of support today, the descriptive method uses the outlines of Islamic traditions, while being adjusted for the stories of miracles and faith-centred claims within those sources. Edward Gibbon and Gustav Weil represent some of the first historians following the descriptive method, on the source critical method, a comparison of all the sources is sought in order to identify which informants to the sources are weak and thereby distinguish spurious material. The work of William Montgomery Watt and that of Wilferd Madelung are two source critical examples, on the tradition critical method, the sources are believed to be based on oral traditions with unclear origins and transmission history, and so are treated very cautiously. Ignaz Goldziher was the pioneer of the critical method. The skeptical method doubts nearly all of the material in the traditional sources, an early example of the skeptical method was the work of John Wansbrough. Nowadays, the popularity of the different methods employed varies on the scope of the works under consideration, for overview treatments of the history of early Islam, the descriptive approach is more popular. For scholars who look at the beginnings of Islam in depth, after the 8th century CE, the quality of sources improves. For the time prior to the beginning of Islam—in the 6th century CE—sources are superior as well, Islam arose within the context of Late Antiquity

43.
Islamic culture
–
Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly Arab, Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam, including Quranic ones such as prayer and non-Quranic such as divisions of the world in Islam. It includes as the Baul tradition of Bengal, and facilitated the conversion of most of Bengal. There are variations in the application of Islamic beliefs in different cultures, Islamic culture is itself a contentious term. Muslims live in different countries and communities, and it can be difficult to isolate points of cultural unity among Muslims. Anthropologists and historians nevertheless study Islam as an aspect of, and influence on, the noted historian of Islam, Marshall Hodgson, noted the above difficulty of religious versus secular academic usage of the words Islamic and Muslim in his three-volume work, The Venture Of Islam. He proposed to resolve it by using these terms for purely religious phenomena. However, his distinction has not been widely adopted, early Muslim literature is in Arabic, as that was the language of Muhammads communities in Mecca and Medina. As the early history of the Muslim community was focused on establishing the religion of Islam, see the articles on Quran, Hadith, and Sirah, which formed the earliest literature of the Muslim community. With the establishment of the Umayyad empire, see The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. While having no content, this secular literature was spread by the Arabs all over their empires. By the time of the Abbasid empire, Persian had become the language of Muslim World. Much of the most famous Muslim literature was written in Persian, from Rumi in Anatolia, to Nizami in the Caucasus, to Jami in Samarkand, from the 11th century, there was a growing body of Islamic literature in the Turkic languages. However, for centuries to come the official language in Turkish-speaking areas would remain Persian, in Anatolia, with the advent of the Seljuks, the practise and usage of Persian in the region would be strongly revived. A branch of the Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum, took Persian language, art and they adopted Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans, which can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, after a period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish had developed towards a fully accepted language of literature, which was even able to satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. With the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish grew in importance in both poetry and prose becoming, by the beginning of the 18th century, the language of the Empire

44.
Islam and secularism
–
The definition and application of secularism, especially the place of religion in society, varies among Muslim countries as it does among western countries. Secularism is often used to describe the separation of life and civil/government matters from religious teachings and commandments, or simply the separation of religion. Secularism in Muslim countries is often contrasted with Islamism, and secularists tend to seek to promote political and social values as opposed to Islamic ones. As the concept of secularism varies among secularists in the Muslim world, on the one hand, secularism is condemned by some Muslim intellectuals who do not feel that religious influence should be removed from the public sphere. On the other hand, secularism is claimed by others to be compatible with Islam, moreover, some scholars argue that secular states have existed in the Muslim world since the Middle Ages. The exact jurisdiction of these courts varies from country to country, but usually includes marriage, divorce, inheritance, the etymology of the Arabic word for secularism can be controversial in itself. Some scholars pointed out that there was no Arabic term to describe the secular and secularism. Secularism was translated into Arabic either as ‘alamaniyah, which is derived from ‘alam, or as ‘ilmaniyah, the term ‘alamaniyah first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century in the dictionary Muhit al-Muhit written by the Christian Lebanese scholar Butrus al-Bustani. Moreover, some refer to ‘almaniyyah which is derived from the word ‘alam, and others prefer dunyawiyyah, the concept of secularism was imported along with many of the ideas of post-enlightenment modernity from Europe into the Muslim world, namely Middle East and North Africa. In the debate on the relationship between religion and state, separability of religious and political authorities in the Islamic world, or status of the Caliph, was one of the biggest issues, john L. Saudi Arabia and Turkey reflected the two polar positions. The majority of Muslim states chose a middle ground in nation building, borrowing heavily from the West and relying on foreign advisers, however while most Muslim governments replaced Islamic law with legal systems inspired by western secular codes, Muslim family law remained in force. It is apolitical Islam, not political Islam, that requires explanation, furthermore, the resurgence of Islam, beginning with the Iranian revolution of 1978-9, defied the illusions of advocates of secularization theory. Furthermore, in most cases, it was not rural but urban phenomena, as early as the end of the first century of the hegira and what has been lacking in the Muslim world is political thought regarding the autonomy of this space. No positive law was developed outside of sharia, the sovereigns religious function was to defend the Islamic community against its enemies, institute the sharia, ensure the public good. The state was an instrument to enable Muslims to live as good Muslims and Muslims were to obey the sultan if he did so, the legitimacy of the ruler was symbolized by the right to coin money and to have the Friday prayer said in his name. The concept of Secularism in Islam has been claimed to have religious sanction too. ”The Hadith is as follows, due to some reason he disliked the idea and commented that it would be better not to do any pollination at all. However for the year the harvest was poor. ”Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. He further says, “According to this hadith, Islam separates religious matters from scientific research, in religious affairs, there has to be strict adherence to divine guidance

45.
Hassan Al-Banna
–
Al-Bannas writings marked a watershed in Islamic intellectual history by presenting a modern ideology based on Islam. Al-Banna considered Islam to be a system of life, with the Quran as the only acceptable constitution. He called for Islamization of the state, the economy, al-Bannas ideology involved criticism of Western materialism, British imperialism, and the traditionalism of Egyptian ulema. He appealed to Egyptian and pan-Arab patriotism but rejected Arab nationalism, the Muslim Brotherhood advocated gradualist moral reform and had no plans for violent takeover of power. Jihad of the spirit was a key notion in their program, under al-Bannas leadership, the organization embarked on a wide-ranging campaign of social engagement with a particular emphasis on public health improvements. He allowed formation of a military wing which took part in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al-Banna argued that the state should enforce Islamic public morality through censorship and application of corporal punishments. Nonetheless, his thought was open to Western ideas and some of his writings quote European authors instead of Islamic sources, al-Banna was assassinated by Egyptian secret police in 1949. His son-in-law Said Ramadan emerged as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s. Hassan al-Banna was born on 14 October 1906 in Mahmudiyya, a rural Nile Delta town located northwest of Cairo in Beheira Governorate. His father, Sheikh Ahmad Abd al-Rahman al-Banna al-Saati, was a Hanbali imam, muezzin, and mosque teacher, Sheikh Ahmad was also known for his work as a Hanbali scholar, particularly his classifications of the traditions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani. These classifications became known as musnad al-fath al-rabbani, through this work, Sheikh Ahmad forged connections with Islamic scholars that proved useful when his son moved to Cairo in 1932. In addition to his exposure to Hanbali Puritanism, Hassan al-Banna was inspired by Rashid Ridas magazine. He was also influenced by Sufism as a youth in Mahmudiyya. He attended weekly Hadra and was a member of the al-Hassafiyya Sufi order, although al-Banna was only thirteen years old during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, it was the event that first exposed him to Egyptian nationalist politics. In his personal accounts, al-Banna connected himself with the activism of the time. In spite of his age, al-Banna participated in demonstrations in Damanhur, self-published political pamphlets. However, during the 1920s economic crisis, the family had trouble sustaining the upkeep of their property, in Mahmudiyya, al-Banna studied in the village mosque with Sheikh Zahran

Mohamed Badie
–
Mohammed Badie is the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has headed the Egyptian branch of the international Muslim Brotherhood organization since 2010, before becoming general guide, Badie had been a member of the groups governing council, the Guidance Bureau, since 1996. He was arrested by Egyptian authorities on 20 August 2013, on 28 Ap

1.
Mohammed Badie محمد بديع

Ismailia
–
Ismailia is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Known in Egypt as The City of Beauty and Enchantment, Ismailia is situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, the city has a population of approximately 750,000 inhabitants. It is located halfway between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south. The Canal widens at that point to include Lake Timsah, o

1.
Administrative building

2.
Ismalaïlia, ca. 1870

3.
Virgin Mary Church known as "Guardian of the Canal", is one of many examples of French architecture in Ismaïlia

4.
Ismailia's railway station

Egypt
–
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Su

1.
The Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.

2.
Flag

3.
The Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion at the Temple of Dendera.

4.
The 1803 Cedid Atlas, showing Ottoman Egypt.

Cairo
–
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional

1.
Cairo القاهرة al-Qāhirah

2.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933). On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes, 1872. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum

3.
A rendition of Fustat from A. S. Rappoport's History of Egypt

4.
Cairo map 1847

Sunni Islam
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him.

3.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) was, in particular during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, an important center of Islamic learning with an emphasis on the Maliki Madh'hab. It is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia

Islamism
–
Islamism is a concept whose meaning has been debated in both public and academic contexts. It is commonly used interchangeably with the terms political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism and these movements have arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence, redefining politics and even borders accord

1.
Sab'u Masajid, Saudi Arabia

2.
An Islamist protestor in London protesting over anti-Muslim cartoons, 6 February 2006

3.
Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani

4.
Painting of Abul Ala Maududi

Religious conservatism
–
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since used to describe a wide range of views. There is no set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the mea

1.
Edmund Burke (1729–1797)

2.
Robert Peel (1788–1850)

3.
Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821)

Anti-communism
–
Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. It reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States, anti-communism has been an element of movements of many different positions, including capitalist, liberal, socialist, anarchist, and fascist viewp

1.
A Falun Gong protest in New York City against the Communist Party of China 's persecution of Falun Gong.

2.
Gao Rongrong, a Falun Gong practitioner from China, was reported tortured to death in custody in 2005.

3.
Anti-government riots in Dushanbe, Soviet Tajikistan, 1990

4.
Herta Müller.

Political spectrum
–
A political spectrum is a system of classifying different political positions upon one or more geometric axes that symbolize independent political dimensions. Most long-standing spectra include a wing and left wing, which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution. According to the simplest left–right

1.
A multi-axis political chart, contrasting between libertarian and authoritarian socialism.

Right-wing politics
–
Hierarchy and inequality may be viewed as natural results of traditional social differences or the competition in market economies. The term right-wing can generally refer to the conservative or reactionary section of a party or system. The original Right in France was formed as a reaction against the Left, and comprised those politicians supportin

1.
5 May 1789: Opening of the Estates-General in Versailles in 1789; the conservatives sat on the right

Far-right politics
–
Far-right politics are right-wing politics further on the right of the left-right spectrum than the standard political right. Far-right politics often involve a focus on tradition, real or imagined, as opposed to policies, right-wing populism, a political ideology often combines laissez-faire, nationalism, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism is often de

1.
Far-right nationalists on a rally in Tallinn, Estonia in 2015

2.
An English Defence League demonstration in Newcastle, England. The placard reads "Shut down the Mosque".

3.
Members of Ukraine's far-right Svoboda openly display the black and red flags of UPA and portraits of Stepan Bandera, Kiev, 14 October 2012

House of the People (Afghanistan)
–
The House of the People or Wolesi Jirga, abbreviated WJ, is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the House of Elders. The House of the People is the chamber that bears the burden of lawmaking in the country. It consists of 249 delegates directly elected by single non-transferable vote, members are elected by

1.
House of the People ولسي جرګه Wolasi Jirga

Council of Representatives of Bahrain
–
The Council of Representatives, sometimes translated as the Chamber of Deputies, is the name given to the lower house of the Bahraini National Assembly, the main legislative body of Bahrain. The body was created by the 2002 Constitution of Bahrain, the Council comprises forty members elected by universal suffrage. The forty seats of the Council of

1.
Council of Representatives

People's Representative Council
–
Together with the Regional Representative Council, a second chamber with limited powers, it makes up a legislative body, the Peoples Consultative Assembly. Currently there are 560 members, following the 2009 elections, all elected, the house has been the subject of frequent public criticism due to perceived high level of fraud and corruption. It me

2.
People's Representative Council Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat

3.
Dutch East Indies Governor-General Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum opens the first meeting of the Volksraad in 1918.

4.
The historic meeting of the KNIP in Malang, East Java to decide Indonesia's response to the Linggadjati Agreement

Council of Representatives of Iraq
–
The Council of Representatives of Iraq is the unicameral legislature of Iraq. It is currently composed of 328 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the Green Zone, an elected Iraqi parliament first formed following the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1925. The 1925 constitution called for a parliament whose lower house. The upper house, t

Parliament of Lebanon
–
The Parliament of Lebanon is the national parliament of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year terms in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanons diverse Christian and its major functions are to elect the President of the republic, to approve the government, and to approve laws and expenditure. On 15 May 2013, the Parli

2.
Lebanese Parliament مجلس النواب Assemblée nationale

National Assembly (Mauritania)
–
The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Mauritania. The legislature has 146 members, elected for terms in single-seat constituencies. From 1961 until 1978, the legal party in the country was the Mauritanian Peoples Party. In the 1990s, a multiparty system was introduced in Mauritania, however, the Democratic and Soci

1.
Mauritania

Palestinian Legislative Council
–
The Palestinian Legislative Council was the parliament of the Palestinian inhabitants of the Palestinian territories. It was a body with 132 members, elected from 16 electoral districts of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank. The PLC was inaugurated for the first time on 7 March 1996, the PLC had limited power and responsibilities,

3.
The destroyed Palestinian Legislative Council building in Gaza City in September 2009.

National Assembly of Sudan
–
The National Assembly is the lower house of the National Legislature of Sudan. The upper house is the Council of States, the current session was elected in 2015. The National Assembly consisted of 450 appointed members who represent the government, former rebels, the National Assembly, whose members were appointed in mid-2005 replaced the latest el

House of Representatives (Yemen)
–
The House of Representatives is the legislature of Yemen. The Assembly of Representatives has 301 members, elected for a term in single-seat constituencies. The last election took place in 2003, the election was set for 27 April 2009, but president Saleh postponed them by two years on 24 February 2009. However, they did not take place on 27 April 2

1.
House of Representatives مجلس النواب اليمني

Arabic language
–
Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and

1.
The Galland Manuscript of One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century

2.
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)

3.
Bilingual traffic sign in Qatar.

Sunni
–
Sunni Islam is the largest group of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to Sunni tradition, Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and this contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad intended his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him.

3.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba) was, in particular during the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, an important center of Islamic learning with an emphasis on the Maliki Madh'hab. It is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia

Islamist
–
Islamism is a concept whose meaning has been debated in both public and academic contexts. It is commonly used interchangeably with the terms political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism and these movements have arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence, redefining politics and even borders accord

1.
Sab'u Masajid, Saudi Arabia

2.
An Islamist protestor in London protesting over anti-Muslim cartoons, 6 February 2006

3.
Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani

Islamic studies
–
Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam and Islamic culture. Islamic studies can be seen under at least two perspectives, From a secular or neutral point of view, Islamic studies do academic research on Islam and Islamic culture independent of faith. In this respect, Islamic studies neither engage in shaping Muslim faith by making Islamic th

1.
Mir Sayyid Ali, a scholar writing a commentary on the Quran, during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

2.
Portrait of a painter during the reign of Mehmet II

3.
A Persian miniature of Shah Abu'l Ma‘ali a scholar.

4.
The Mongol ruler, Ghazan, studying the Quran.

Hassan al-Banna
–
Al-Bannas writings marked a watershed in Islamic intellectual history by presenting a modern ideology based on Islam. Al-Banna considered Islam to be a system of life, with the Quran as the only acceptable constitution. He called for Islamization of the state, the economy, al-Bannas ideology involved criticism of Western materialism, British imperi

1.
Hasan al-Banna حسن البنا

2.
Al-Banna (third from left) with Aziz Ali al-Misri (fourth from right) and Egyptian, Palestinian and Algerian political and religious figures at a reception in Cairo, 1947

Arab world
–
The Arab world, also known as the Arab nation or the Arab states, consists of the 22 Arabic-speaking countries of the Arab League. The contemporary Arab world has a population of around 422 million inhabitants. In the Middle Ages, the Arab world was synonymous with the historic Arab empires and caliphates, Arab nationalism arose in the second half

1.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba), was founded in 670 by the Arab general and conqueror Uqba ibn Nafi. The Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in the historic city of Kairouan in Tunisia.

2.
A map of the Arab world. This is based on the standard territorial definition of the Arab world, which comprises the states of the Arab League plus Western Sahara. Comoros is not shown.

Hamas
–
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization. It has a service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Hamass military wing objected to the truce offer, analysts have said that it seems clear that Hamas knows that many of its conditions for the truce could never be met. The attacks on civilians have

1.
Current leader, Khaled Meshaal

3.
August 2001 Sbarro pizza restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, in which 15 Israeli civilians were killed. Hamas said the attack was in response to Israel's assassination of its officials, including two senior leaders.

4.
Hamas rally in Bethlehem

Egyptian revolution of 2011
–
The Egyptian revolution of 2011, locally known as the January 25 Revolution, began on 25 January 2011 and took place across all of Egypt. The date was set by various groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian police day as a statement against increasing police brutality during the last few years of Mubaraks presidency. It consisted of demonstratio

1.
Demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square on 8 February 2011

2.
Hosni Mubarak in 2009

3.
Gamal Mubarak in 2006

Bahrain
–
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiqu

4.
A photograph of the First Oil Well in Bahrain, with oil first being extracted in 1931

Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

1.
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

2.
Flag

3.
The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

4.
Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

Syria
–
Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of th

1.
Female figurine, 5000 BC. Ancient Orient Museum.

2.
Flag

3.
God head, the kingdom of Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)

4.
Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC

Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain cons

1.
Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia

2.
Flag

3.
Saudi Arabia political map

4.
Saudi Arabian administrative regions and roadways map.

United Arab Emirates
–
In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monar

1.
Dubai in 1950; the area in this photo shows Bur Dubai in the foreground (centered on Al-Fahidi Fort); Deira in middle-right on the other side of the creek; and Al Shindagha (left) and Al Ras (right) in the background across the creek again from Deira

2.
Flag

3.
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the first President of UAE.

4.
View of Sharjah city

Quran
–
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the

1.
Manuscript of the Quran. Brooklyn Museum.

2.
Quran

3.
11th-century North African Quran in the British Museum.

4.
Quran − in Mashhad, Iran − written by Ali.

Sunnah
–
Sunnah is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as various reports about Muhammads companions. The Quran and the Sunnah make up the two sources of Islamic theology and law. The Sunnah is also defined as a path, a way, in the pre-Islamic period, the word sunna

Pan-Islamism
–
Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic state – often a Caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. The model pan-Islamism aims for is the years of Islam – the reign of Muhammad. In the modern era, Pan-Islamism was championed by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani who sought unity among M

1.
Islam by country Sunni Shias Ibadi

Social movement
–
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizations which focus on political or social issues. In other words, they carry out, resist, or undo a social change, modern Western social movements became possible through education and increased mobility of labor due to the industrial

1.
The Gordon Riots, depicted in a painting by John Seymour Lucas

2.
Satirical engraving of Wilkes by William Hogarth. Wilkes is holding two editions of The North Briton.

3.
The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, London in 1848.

4.
Martin Luther King led the American Civil Rights Movement, one of the most famous social movements of the 20th century.

Arab Spring
–
Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Bahrain, Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests occurred in Djibouti, Mauritania, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, a major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam. These attacks were answered with violence

1.
Clockwise from top left: Protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo; Demonstrators marching through Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis; Political dissidents in Sana'a; Protesters gathering in the Pearl Roundabout in Manama; Mass Demonstration in Douma; Demonstrators in Bayda.

2.
Protesters on Avenue Habib Bourguiba, downtown Tunis on 14 January 2011, a few hours before president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country

3.
Thousands of demonstrators gather in Bayda

4.
Protests in Sana'a

Egyptian presidential election, 2012
–
A presidential election was held in Egypt in two rounds, the first on 23 and 24 May 2012 and the second on 16 and 17 June. Morsi, however, lasted little over a year as President before he was ousted in a coup in July 2013. The elections set the stage for the divisions that were to follow, along Islamist and secular lines, and those opposed to, Isla

1.
Nominee

2.
Ballot Paper, First round

3.
Khaled Ali

4.
Hisham Bastawisy

Mohamed Morsi
–
He was the first democratically elected head of state in the 5000 years of Egyptian history, in the election after the Egyptian revolution of 2011. These issues, along with complaints of prosecutions of journalists and attacks on nonviolent demonstrators, as part of a compromise, Morsi rescinded the decrees. In the referendum he held on the new con

1.
Mohamed Morsi محمد مرسى

2.
Then President Mohamed Morsi (right) and General al-Sisi (left) listen to visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (center), during a meeting with U.S. officials on April 24, 2013. Al-Sisi, chosen by Morsi to be the first post- Mubarak era Defense Minister, would later sanction the removal of Morsi.

3.
Mohamed Morsi meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Cairo, Egypt, July 2012

4.
Morsi and the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasília, Brazil, May 2013

Islam
–
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and u

1.
The Kaaba, in Mecca, Hejaz region, today's Saudi Arabia, is the center of Islam. Muslims from all over the world gather there to pray in unity.

2.
The dome of the Carol I Mosque in Constanța, Romania, topped by the Islamic crescent

4.
An angel presenting Muhammad and his companions with a miniature city. In the Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul.

History of Islam
–
The history of Islam concerns the political, economic, social, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Despite concerns about reliability of sources, most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca. A century later, the Islamic empire extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus river in the east, polities such as those ruled

1.
The Mosque of Uqba (Great Mosque of Kairouan), founded by the Umayyad general Uqba Ibn Nafi in 670 AD, is the oldest and most prestigious mosque in the Muslim West; its present form dates from the 9th century, Kairouan, Tunisia.

3.
Dome of the Rock The Mosque of Omar, on Ash-Haram Al-Sharif (the Temple Mount), built by Abd al-Malik; completed at the end of the Second Fitna.

4.
An Arabic manuscript written under the second half of the Abbasid Era.

Islamic culture
–
Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly Arab, Islamic culture generally includes all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam, including Quranic ones such as prayer and non-Qurani

1.
World Muslim population by percentage (Pew Research Center, 2014).

2.
Tabatabaee-ha House, Kashan Iran

3.
The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the few classical examples of Mughal design and architecture in South Asia.

Islam and secularism
–
The definition and application of secularism, especially the place of religion in society, varies among Muslim countries as it does among western countries. Secularism is often used to describe the separation of life and civil/government matters from religious teachings and commandments, or simply the separation of religion. Secularism in Muslim co

4.
Gaddafi at an Arab summit in Libya in 1969, shortly after the September Revolution that toppled King Idris I. Gaddafi sits in military uniform in the middle, surrounded by President Gamal Abdel Nasser (left) and Syrian President Nureddin al-Atassi (right).

2.
Cecil Rhodes and the Cape-Cairo railway project. Rhodes founded the De Beers Mining Company, owned the British South Africa Company and had his name given to what became the state of Rhodesia. He liked to "paint the map British red" and declared: "all of these stars... these vast worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets".

3.
French poster about the " Madagascar War "

4.
Japanese march into Zhengyangmen of Beijing after capturing the city in July 1937.

1.
"Sammankomsten" ("The Meeting"), oil painting by Ester Almqvist (sv), original at the Swedish National Museum. the painting was chosen by the UN as a motif for a stamp commemorating the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, paragraph 20: the Right of Assembly

2.
Janitorial workers striking in front of the MTV building in Santa Monica, California. Striking in a trade union is a way of exercising freedom of assembly and freedom of association.

3.
Posted excerpt from the US Constitution, at an Occupy Oakland event, 2011